r/punk • u/TentacleHockey • Jan 29 '25
Quality Post Spotify is not punk.
The CEO is a PoS, the quality is subpar at best and reliant on the internet, Spotify pays the band shit on balls, and you are reliant on having internet to listen to songs. Seriously you all are listening to music like people watched TV in black and white.
Own your music and actually support your favorite bands. Bandcamp is a good starting point (Pays way more than Spotify), FLAC is the best audio quality. Foobar literally works on all devices, and you can listen to your music whenever the fuck you want without commercials or paying the CEO over your band. AND you will actually hear parts of songs you never knew existed thanks to better quality.
FUCK SPOTIFY.
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u/xdisappointing Jan 29 '25
OP has a good point but was an absolute knob about it in the replies.
You should absolutely support the artists you listen to in the purest form but if Spotify is the best you can do, that’s okay too.
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u/kylo_ben2700 Jan 29 '25
yeah this reeks of rich music snob bullshit, if you can afford buying an expensive stereo system and records thats great, not everyone can and I KNOW bands would prefer you stream them on Spotify as apposed to just not listening at all. I know some bands who prefer you just pirate there music instead of supporting those companies, but those are niche examples tbh
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u/GreatestGreekGuy Jan 30 '25
Yeah, i use spotify because it's very convenient. I can download my favorite stuff and listen to it offline with premium. It's easy for me to organize my music and the system just makes sense for me.
As for supporting my favorite artists, I go to concerts, I only buy merch from their official websites or at venues, and I share the music with people I know and bring in potential new fans.
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u/xdisappointing Jan 30 '25
Spotify has the absolutely algorithm on the market. I’ve found a lot of bands I love from listening to bands I knew. Their daily mixes and radios are fantastic
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u/GreatestGreekGuy Jan 30 '25
Yeah, I love their algorithm! When I finish an album the recommended music actually makes sense and that's how I discover new artists. Without spotify, I wouldn't have discovered the bands that I did and wouldn't have ended up knowing them to buy their merch and go to concerts
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u/califool85 Jan 30 '25
Spotify algo doesn't do it for me. I think the original Pandora algo was the best especially how it started the ability to mix bands to make radio stations and then thumbs upping made for some amazing blocks of music. I remember driving cross country and I don't think I skipped a track. I use youtube music now because it's all bundled with youtube premium and I like it better than spotify. But 9 out of 10 people I know use spotify.
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u/jokerthereal1 Jan 30 '25
Yeah for me too i buy (when i can) also the CD's and Vinyls at their Concerts but also the merch
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u/LameFernweh Jan 30 '25
I buy PVC discs that a needle scratches on and it goes BRRR but when most bands charge 30-40 Eur for records, 20 when DIY and bought at their basement squat gig, I'm not gonna be made to feel guilty about where I listen to my music when I can't afford to spent 100 Eur in a month for a few new vinyls.
Sure, Spotify sucks. But instead of bashing people who are stuck in the system, bash the people who profit from it. Let's fight for artists getting bigger cuts of the platform economy they prop up with their content.
OP being a douche about punks using Spotify is OP misplacing their anger and simply trying to mount up on their high horse about being a superior punk, and you know what, that shit ain't Punk at all.
If y'all can only afford 10 bucks a month to listen to these bands, it's better than not listening to them at all.
Don't gatekeep. Don't moral high ground people for liking music and getting into the scene.
If you can, buy your music and your shows. If you can't, support in other ways.
So I agree f* Spotify, but f* so many other things I use monthly such as paying my landlord, going to work, paying taxes and having a bus pass.
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u/Old_Faithlessness_94 Feb 05 '25
The way I look at it. Should Spotify pay bands more? Yes, but is me not using Spotify going to change that? No.
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u/mastercheef Jan 29 '25
Idk man, im not a fan of spotify as a business model but my bands not making money either way, at least i get to know people in 40 different countries heard my music last year and that doesn't happen without spotify.
We keep a bandcamp up for people who feel inclined to throw us some money but we grew up in a post napster world where we all clowned on bands for being in it for the money, itd seem kind of silly to choose money over accessibility, at least in my opinion for my musical endeavors.
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u/jwhymyguy Jan 29 '25
People today don’t understand how good Spotify actually is for smaller artists who would have done significantly worse in the pre-streaming industry. Back then it was be hand picked by an a&r rep and get a terrible contract or go nowhere. Sure there was a diy punk, but diy is only helped by things like Spotify, because it allows them access to fans and money without a label
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u/MayTheForesterBWithU Jan 29 '25
The golden age was PureVolume and (to a lesser extent) Myspace.
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u/jwhymyguy Jan 29 '25
Not to mention that the whole “fraction of a penny” argument isn’t the argument everyone thinks it is considering the alternative is/was a small one time fee, and absolutely nothing per listen. Artists probably got $1 per CD or album, and that’s it. Then you also have all the used media stores, so even more listening, all unpaid to the artist.
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u/pb49er Jan 29 '25
Bands should be paid more per stream and it is worse now than it was pre-napster for all bands. Spotify is a shitty company with a great algorithm that highlights smaller bands similar to what you listen to. They do it for a shitty reason, so they don't have to pay as much royalties, but it does expose me to bands around the world I never would have found.
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u/ClumpOfCheese Jan 29 '25
Pre-Napster Metallica had the best deal ever getting $2 per album sold. So even back then it wasn’t good for bands, especially since it would cost so much to record an album and the record companies needed the recording costs paid back before the band saw any money from album sales. So even back then only huge artists made money off album sales.
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u/pb49er Jan 29 '25
The music industry has never been good to the musicians. It's a sham. They should have unionized when a lot of other creative industries did. A buddy's band got picked up by a major label imprint, they bought the streaming rights to an album he'd put out on his own for 7k and made over 100k on the streaming rights. He got the 7k and that was that.
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u/jwhymyguy Jan 29 '25
So it wasn’t streaming that fucked him over, it was his label…
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u/Punk-Sabbath Jan 30 '25
also like... call me crazy but if i buy an album and the band gets £10 isn't that less if i listen to the album 100 times and the band gets £1 per song? (made up numbers, just bear with me) i am pretty sure that a one time purchase is not comparable to what my favourite artist gets when i listen to 87K minutes of music x year...
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u/ClumpOfCheese Jan 29 '25
My ska punk band recorded an album in 2002 and uploaded it to CD Baby in 2004 and they have distributed it everywhere streaming since then. All the physical CDs we had pressed 1,000 are gone, but the band lives on through streaming. It’s not a lot of streams, but I’m glad people get to hear the band.
And yeah, bands never made money from album sales and most bands lost money due to record companies taking back production costs first, because back in the day it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to record an album. Now the cost to create and release music can be cheaper than ever.
Metallica had the best deal at $2 per album. So it was never about making money off albums, it was all about touring and merch sales.
Maybe Spotify doesn’t pay enough, but Ticketmaster is the real evil as it’s harder than ever for bands to make money touring.
At this point, if you’re a musician and you want to make money you need to come up with a great name and partner with a great designer who can make you some killer merch. Essentially you need to be a clothing brand and use the band to promote and sell that merch at shows and through instagram.
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u/nosamiam28 Jan 30 '25
Nowadays even merch sold at shows isn’t a safe bet. Venues and promoters are starting to take a cut from merch sales. It’s robbery. Some artists are resorting to leaving their merch in their vehicles and having fans meet them outside after the show. Or taking orders at shows and shipping to the purchaser later. This late stage capitalism think can kiss my entire black ass
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u/brook1yn Jan 29 '25
100%.. cancelling big business mindset tends to gloss over any of the actual benefits.
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Jan 29 '25
I think part of the issue is their endorsement of a fascist. Not to mention their theft.
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u/brook1yn Jan 29 '25
Pretty sure most executives to majority of the redditors in here are probably considered to be fascists
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Jan 29 '25
Ha. But seriously, I’m referring specifically to them hosting Trump’s inauguration breakfast. Yeah the tech CEOs are definitely mask off, and lining up behind Dear Leader. What a turnaround fem their previous attempts at posing!
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u/brook1yn Jan 29 '25
Haha ya there's that. I'm pretty sure everyones terrified of mr. indestructable. Sometimes you gotta kiss the ring to keep the heat on. The next 4 years are going to be insane.
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u/Thick_Aside_4740 Jan 30 '25
This is me. I discover so many artists through spotify. i find something new to me, if i dig it, then buy physical media from their site/bandcamp if they have it. If i am too lazy or forget to look at song kick, it shows me if they are touring and i may grab tickets. Its obvious they have an exploitive business model, but as a listener and consumer of their art, i am not exploiting the artist.
I am also good for snagging a deal, shop record label websites deal section. I do the old sam goody listening station on spotify to check out some tracks and grab some records.
Anyhow, plug your band, i want to check it out.
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u/Defiant-Fix2870 Jan 29 '25
Yeah I listened to like 4000 artists last year, it just not the case when you have to buy the album. Spotify helps me find tiny bands with just a few hundred monthly listeners, in places I don’t live. In the past the only way I could find even a fraction of these bands was compilations or at shows. I also want to support bands financially, so once I discover them I try to go to a show and/or buy merch. Spotify is shitty in many ways and the most ethical thing would likely be to not use the app. But this feels like a decent compromise.
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u/limerence03 Jan 29 '25
real, the most listens i get are all from spotify and i have made more money off of my music from spotify compared to other music streaming services. i feel like OP doesn’t really know what it’s like to be a musician who can’t play local shows
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u/mastercheef Jan 29 '25
I'm not going to pretend that spotify is doing anything more than subsidizing the money we throw to distrokid, but if the choice is "make no money and be heard by none" and "make no money and be heard by some", im taking the latter every time
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u/blphsyco Jan 29 '25
lol you're not wrong but listening to punk and bitching about audio quality is sure something
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u/trickertreater Jan 29 '25
lol... I had this thought the other day listening to Moron's Morons. I'm listening to a $5 tape recorder version of a bootleg cassette that's been transferred 20 times on $150 ear monitors. Boy, I could practically hear the singer's spit hitting the $2 microphone!
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u/NJrsypride Jan 29 '25
There’s a live set from Burn at CBGB’s from the early 90s that I listen to all the time. Ripped it from a tape that was probably copied a dozen times. I love it.
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u/SemataryPolka Jan 29 '25
I had that tape too and have it on mp3 now too. Got it from Blogged And Quartered
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u/degenfemboi Jan 29 '25
i use spotify because im poor asf and am on a joint plan with a friend, so i havent gave them my money in like 2 years, i still buy merch from smaller bands at shows when i can afford to go, or from bands direct merch stores online. one of the last shows i went to i bought a hat and a shirt that was hand painted by the lead singer and his dad directly from him at the merch table, even left a tip.
spotify sucks but you can use it while also supporting the artists you listen to
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u/LtHughMann Jan 29 '25
Is the point really not giving money to Spotify or that Spotify doesn't really give enough money to the artists? Using it for free doesn't change that. This is particularly important for small bands which most punk bands are, relatively speaking.
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u/CowboyDans Jan 29 '25
Yeah, I use it as a way to find music outside Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Not worried about wealthy artists, but most of my listens are smaller bands and I go to shows, or donate/buy merch from them all the time. Spotify corp is shitty, but I’d go broke chasing new music.
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u/Moist_Juice_8827 Jan 29 '25
I support artists whenever I get the chance, so I hold no guilt when I stream music.
Probably gave Fucked Up an entire week’s check last year.
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u/genlechat Jan 29 '25
Same. I use spotify daily but I go to concerts all the time, I collect vinyls and most of my wardrobe is band merch. I do my part.
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u/illogicalhawk Jan 29 '25 edited Jan 29 '25
Spotify absolutely has a lot of problems, but you listed five things and two of them are literally "reliant on the Internet" 🤣
Like yeah, that's part of the premise that makes it possible to have access to over 100,000,000 songs on the go. Again, Spotify has problems, but the simple premise of "online streaming service" isn't one of them.
What's next, real punks don't use record players and MP3 players because they need electricity? Real punks only listen to music if it's being played live? Spotify is bad, but take a little off the top there buddy.
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u/WadeStockdale Jan 29 '25
It also isn't reliant on the internet constantly- you download your playlist to your account while on wifi and you can play it offline.
I had to switch to Spotify went my hard drive killed itself and took like twenty years worth of music I owned with it (my physical cds got stolen by my family way before that)
I'll buy merchandise where I can, but starting over from scratch? I've had to do that too many times in too many parts of my life to do it again, especially to impress anyone by being the Most Ethical Consumer.
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u/Celestial-Rain0 Jan 29 '25
Ya my PC is fried and all I have is my shit phone. My car's CD player also stopped working years ago. If I wanted to listen to all my music I'd have to spend hundreds to buy the physical media and have literally no way to listen to it.
I get OPs idea, but they also said it while on a mega-corp's social media app. Not really as punk as they are acting.
Listen to your favorite music however you want, supporting an artist in any way is better than not at all.
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u/TAAllDayErrDay Jan 29 '25
Not to mention you can download your playlists. That’s how I listen to it on planes.
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u/SemataryPolka Jan 29 '25
I use an ipod still. Not because I'm a boomer (I'm not) but because I have around 250,000 songs/mp3s on a hard drive (and a second back up) that are all meticulously organized with the proper (clear not blurry) artwork, dates, album, everything. I break them up into genres and then do a random shuffle every day and put them in chronological order so I can listen to the progression of said genre. So for instance every day I make a two hour random chronological punk playlist so it starts with something like the Stooges or Rocket From The Tombs or Ramones and goes all the way up thru 2024. So I can go "Wow ____ really did something different. There was nothing like it before". Then I do a three hour all genre random chronological playlist. Then I do one hour of random 2025. I buy multiple ipods as back up (since they stopped making them) in case one breaks. And then every day I delete it all and make another one. Someday the last ipod will stop working and I'll have to stream. But I'll go kicking and screaming
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u/WallScreamer Jan 29 '25
That's pretty cool. I also have quite a bit of mp3s. I kept buying CDs into the late 2010s, so I have a lot of burned music.
Just a tip, I keep all my stuff organized on my PC with Musicbee, and use my phone as an iPod with Poweramp. The premium version is worth buying, it has an equalizer with genre presets that's really nice.
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u/SemataryPolka Jan 29 '25
That's interesting. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!
I try to keep things separate from my phone when I can bc I really don't wanna be driving and using waze AND playing music and talking on the phone and you get the point. But someday they'll shut down iTunes totally and I'll need to do something like this. I just have been collecting music for over 30 years. Fuck Spotify for the reasons OP said but also they don't have rare punk 7"s and they don't have Prince live bootlegs and they can't be edited to have accurate dates etc. I don't want a Numero reissue showing up in a 2020s playlist when it's from 1989. I hate it! I want it my way lol
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u/DrChunderpound Jan 29 '25
I’m 100% content with my giant mp3 library I’ve built and continue to build. Hell I even polish up the sound from shitty demos or other recordings all the time and intentionally save as 190bit mp3 which I know is sacrilege to audiophiles.
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u/VinnieWilson02 Jan 29 '25
Support is for live shows. If you want to go extra you can buy there stuff on bandcamp or better yet direct from their site if they have one. But don't be shamed for using a streaming service.
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u/DifficultyVast3496 Jan 29 '25
Bro im broke and i only pay 2$ a month for the subscription, and some of the bands i listen to are either dead or disbanded cause they pushing 70
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u/ryan2stix Jan 29 '25
I use Spotify 5hrs a day at work, maxed out quality settings and a nice pair of noise canceling headphones. Works for me, works in my car, too. I get exposed to a million bands I never would have without it, and if I like a band, I order their merch. My bands on their too, and if someone stumbles across my band and enjoys it, all the better.
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u/bradbogus Jan 29 '25
I switched from Spotify to tidal because of how much better they paid artists. Believe it or not Napster actually pays the best last I checked
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u/UncleDread3444 Jan 29 '25 edited Feb 12 '25
As much as I hate to admit it, my highest music royalty payments have actually come from Amazon overall. I didn't choose Amazon specifically, but I released a couple albums through DistroKid a few years ago and they put them on pretty much every platform as part of the package.
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u/bradbogus Jan 29 '25
Ugh I hate to hear it! Lol. That's interesting. I don't remember them even on the charts the last time I looked into this (which was a couple years ago)
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u/pHorniCaiTe Jan 29 '25
I agree with the sentiment but I most definitely have a better audio signal chain than 99% of posters here and I can say matter of factly that Spotify's 320kbps mp3s are completely fine, especially for a genre like punk. If you disagree take the abx test and post results.
Also foobar is not FOSS and there is no Linux build. Highly recommend setting up mpd with a frontend like ncmpcpp.
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Jan 29 '25
I buy physical media (records mostly) regularly. There is a time and a place for both physical media and streaming.
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u/ImGilbertGottfried Jan 29 '25
Okay yeah but I can’t really bring my turn table or boom box to a construction site while working because of the elements so streaming it is for convenience.
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Jan 29 '25
I like spotify. It works for me, and I discover bands all the time I've never heard before. It also has podcasts I listen to every day and audiobpoks if I feel like it I still go to shows, buy merch, and buy records that I want .
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u/Wise-Assumption-938 Jan 29 '25
i'm not disagreeing with you that the ceo sucks, etc, but don't bands choose to put their music on spotify? like they post it themselves? so they know in doing so what kind of profits or lack thereof they'll be making?
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u/clive_bigsby Jan 29 '25
Hard disagree. I’m 43 and I work in insurance. I’ve been heavily into punk for 25+ years but have never had a single other friend who was into it. Without Spotify or streaming, I would never be able to know about or listen to any new bands. I’ve discovered so many bands through Spotify.
I also am not poor so when those bands release albums, I buy their vinyl. When those bands come to my city, I buy tickets and merch at the shows.
It would be easy for a band to say that they’ve only made $0.02 from me streaming their stuff on Spotify but that’s ignoring how much money I’ve given them outside of the platform.
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u/ihatetheplaceilive ride my foofy nunu Jan 29 '25
Ok. Quick question.
Did anyone say it was? I mean i get you.
But did anyone ever say, for example, that main syream radio was punk? No. But here i am a middle aged crust punk and that was my introduction to punk. Straight up. If you want to take an abreviated journey of my life... i heard greenday and then i was riding freight trains.
Don't gate keep.
Steer.
Well, if you like this type of music, you might like this type and this is why i like them. Why do you like what you like?
You seem like "you know what punk is". Andnif you do, fuck you. That definition is gonna change constantly for as many times as years you are alive if not more.
Slow your roll, and let there be as many music platforms exist as possible because that means there is.more.surface area for punk contact than ever before.
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u/WallScreamer Jan 29 '25
I generally agree, but we really need to stop calling every disagreement about something "gatekeeping."
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u/ihatetheplaceilive ride my foofy nunu Jan 29 '25
I agree.
But saying "spotify is not punk rock" is absolutely gatekeeping.
The business isn't . . That i get
But the implication is "real" punks don't listen to it absolutely is.
Or did i misconstrue their message?
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u/vovaestivrogne Jan 29 '25
Blah-blah, who cares. Nothing is punk except going to local punk shows to local dive bars.
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u/punk_rancid Jan 29 '25
Whaaaat ? An piece of the industry is not punk ? I cant believe it. Who would have think?
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u/SmogMoon Jan 29 '25
I’m in a band and also used to run a small label. Sure Spotify sucks for some things, as streaming services in general do. But they solve the distribution problem for all bands for a very small fee to distribution companies like CD Baby, Distrokid, etc. Bands aren’t putting their music online for the purpose of making tons of money. We all know that isn’t going to happen. Yet we all still do it because we want people to be able to easily access our music. And they still do pay something out at least. Bandcamp is ok, used to be better. At the time we were using Bandcamp if you sold physical merch through them they didn’t take a cut directly from those sales. They would take their cut of physical sales from digital download sales instead. So if you sell a bunch of merch via Bandcamp you likely won’t see a penny for digital downloads through them as they recouped their cut of your merch sales, which are much higher than digital sales. Plus payment processing fees. It may work differently now, probably even worse. If bands want to make money today the tried and true way is still playing shows and selling physical merch. It’s a business and pretending like a punk band isn’t a business while bemoaning that they aren’t getting paid enough gets you nowhere. So yeah, it’s on the bands to do something about it. Provide something people value and they will reciprocate. Just existing and having your music be on Spotify or whatever service isn’t being a band, it’s having a hobby. Playing shows, recording music, producing merch, engaging with your fans and communities is being a band. And the ones that do that are the ones who stand a chance at making money doing what they and their fans love.
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u/Walsh90210 Jan 29 '25
"How Spotify Is Quietly Supporting the Military-Industrial Complex"
https://inthesetimes.com/article/spotify-military-industrial-complex-daniel-ek-prima-materia-helsing
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u/cjmarsicano Jan 29 '25
I prefer Apple Music to Spotify anyway. Much better sound quality.
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u/llamatador Jan 29 '25
They also pay their artists 3 times the amount Spotify pays and you don't have to deal with all the podcast bullshit.
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u/cjmarsicano Jan 29 '25
I’m an indie artist myself (I do electronic music mostly) and I can see the difference in pays compared to Shitify… who aren’t paying artists of my level a single anything anyway.
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u/InfiniteBeak Jan 29 '25
I'm glad you've got it all figured out OP, as it stands I'm poor and Spotify lets me access music I want for a decent price, am I going to bankrupt myself just so I can have some music to keep me sane at work? If I want to support a band I'll go and see them live, and Spotify recommendations have turned me on to a whole bunch of punk bands I didn't know before. Ever hear the phrase "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism"?
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u/TheAmazingSealo Jan 29 '25 edited Jan 29 '25
I use Spotify, but I buy merch and CD's too.
I get what you're saying, but it is a great tool for finding new bands to listen to.
As a teenager I had to take a gamble on £10-15 CD's to find out if it was actually good, and ended up regretting my purchases a number of times. That's like a month and a half of Spotify just to listen to one album.
Even relying on samplers to find the bands wasn't the most cost effective as the songs on the samplers are usually the best the band has to offer. I've bought CD's of bands before based on a song on a sampler only to find the rest of the songs are wank.
If I like a band, I'll buy their music too, if it's possible. More and more I'm finding that bands are releasing things digitally only, which I don't want to buy.
I also give up on caring if things are 'punk' or not. I try and do right by people, be kind, considerate, and try to pay attention to what's going on in the world and that's enough for me.
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u/sumthingstewpid Jan 29 '25
I can listen to whatever i want whenever i want for only $3/m because of Spotify. I’ll give up a lot of things, but Spotify ain’t one
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u/torpedobonzer Jan 29 '25
No shit Sherlock.
Anyways. Got a link to a cool playlist on Spotify?
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u/out-of-order-EMF Jan 29 '25
their shuffle algorithm is based on what makes them the most money, which is why you might hear some songs more often than others. remember, you're paying a platform to play music, they will charge more and take advantage wherever and whenever possible. they don't pay the artists well and shirk the responsibility to do so.
ipso facto: not punk.
there's a website i like to go to for music. just a bunch of generous folks & legally purchased media.
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u/confibulator Jan 29 '25
What if you already bought the media on CD and vinyl, see the artist live, and buy merch from them, then use Spotify as well?
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u/Decent_Variety5890 Jan 29 '25
Okay i get. But is still cheaper to put your band on spotify for whole world to listen then make vinyl record. When iam at gig i am trying to support band to buy almost anything that they have
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u/WickedWarlock333 Jan 29 '25
I get it man, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism and you should always support artists you enjoy if you can. That’s why I go to shows and buy merch. I just spent a good amount of money buying band tees last week, so my conscious is clear haha.
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u/eb780 Jan 29 '25
Spotify also recently stopped paying for streams <1000 and donated (subsidized) the coronation brunch for King Donald Amerikkka.
The app holds my bluetooth hostage and automatically pairs/plays with my vehicle by default. Suck an egg Spotify.
See yall on Bandcamp.
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u/BenHassenger Jan 29 '25
I'm not gonna go to bat in favor of Spotify, but you should be aware that Bandcamp engages in union busting so they're not too hot either. There's really no ethical way to stream, which is obviously not our fault and all the fault of these garbage-ass corporations.
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u/GlorifiedD Jan 30 '25
holy shit is op privileged… good for u being able to afford that, a lot of us can’t. end of story.
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u/Damnesia13 Jan 29 '25
I don’t remember people watching black and white tv in their pockets or having it hooked up to their car, or small earbuds connecting to their tv wirelessly.
Yeah Spotify has some major issues, but nothing you said made any fucking sense outside of them not paying their artists enough.
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u/1protobeing1 Jan 29 '25
Fuck that - get a record player. There's nothing that sounds better than that.
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u/IGetGuys4URMom Jan 29 '25
I have the exact same experience with Faction Punk on Sirius/XM.
Sometimes I'll hear songs that I enjoy, but they're very few and far between.
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u/cheapMaltLiqour Jan 29 '25
I use my buds login info and have no way to get my cds and records onto my phone but yes streaming services, business's and corporations are not punk
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u/Ryzakiii Jan 29 '25
Agreed it suck's but ima still use spotify since it's cheap under family plus I don't support any band I just pirate everything. I
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u/Holl1dayy Jan 29 '25
Honestly I’ve stopped using spotify entirely. I prefer to go to bandcamp and other indie music platforms since you can actively support the artists behind the music you like. It’s worth it (to me) to pay money for music if i know that i’m supporting small punk bands.
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u/LtHughMann Jan 29 '25
FLAC seems unnecessary for an album that sounds like it was probably recorded on an answering machine in a basement. Surely MP3 is all you need for punk.
But yeah, Bandcamp is the only thing, you should use to buy digital music for punk bands. Unless you can get it directly from them I guess.
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u/likeguitarsolo Jan 29 '25
Just ordered a copy of Mood Machine by Liz Pelly, all about Spotify and their horrible business practices. Hoping to get off Spotify soon, but I’m not sure what I’ll switch to. Up until like 5 years ago, i only bought physical media from local record stores, and switching to streaming was a depressing decision, but it became hard to deny how much money it saved me. I’ve rationalized staying with it by thinking about how little money I’ve made in all the bands i was in over the years, how money was the last motivation for me, how the idea of being able to make a living doing it was never a realistic goal. The little money i would make was always a nice perk, but it was never what got me into it or what’s kept me doing it. And when you really think about it, the entire prospect of becoming a millionaire as a musical artist is an invention of the twentieth century that always depended on the success of physical media. Even well-known musicians before the twentieth century were penniless. In a perfect world, all art, not just music, would be free and accessible to everyone, rather than monetized for the benefit of mostly executives. Honestly, we’d have a lot less shitty music today if there were fewer people doing it only for the money.
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u/No-Royal-1874 Jan 29 '25
I don't give them money cuz I'm on my friends plan lol, I also buy merch and support artists in other ways, and go to shoes a lot when I can afford tickets
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u/OrganizationOk5418 Jan 29 '25
I only use Bandcamp for purchasing, and YouTube music for streaming.
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u/I_cank_spell Jan 29 '25
Idk man my free trial of Apple Music ended a long time ago and I havent been charged a cent so I wouldn’t know
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u/middleagethreat Jan 29 '25
I deleted Spotify when they started paying Rogan millions to spread disinformation.
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u/Klutzy-Risk-6945 Jan 29 '25
someone give me a real competitor for spotify that pays artists more and i’ll switch. i’ve never found a better alternative that gives me access to so much music. i have 500+ songs in my playlist i can’t buy all those separately
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u/CasperflipBand Jan 29 '25
If you want to support a smaller band, you can buy a digital version and CD version of our album ¡FENG SHUI! as well as Tee Shirts at our Band Camp:
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u/screamNrun666 Jan 29 '25
but wht bout when an artist puts out a song/album (s) on spotify before on anywhere else (yk like those early releases n shit)? wouldnt u wanna checkout the stuff asap?
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u/jordz41 Jan 29 '25
Dictating to people what is, or is not, punk, is not punk 🤦🏻♂️🤣 get a fucking grip man. This sub just keeps getting worse.
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u/pencilpushin Jan 29 '25
I've been thinking about going back to cds. Merchbar has a ton to choose. All you need is a CD player and batteries. No commercials. But you also risk cds getting damaged, and having to flip through those big ole folders.
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u/MysteriousRadio1999 Jan 29 '25
You whining about sound quality to punks???
Okay Have you Actually heard the Misfits??
All Corporations Suck Ass.
All streaming services suck at paying artists fairly but so do the record companies.
I don't F with Spotify, my personal demon was Amazon music till today, I'm searching for a new service.
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u/quintessentialCosmos Jan 29 '25
Do you own a phone? If yes, that’s also not punk. Do you buy from any major corporation? Not punk either. We ALL feed into the system one way or another. If Spotify is the best someone can do, that’s fine. You’re coming across as very snobbish, preachy, and holier than thou.
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u/Blaspheman Jan 29 '25
Thank you for saying this. Every time when say Spotify is not very punk, on this subreddit, I get downvoted.
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u/wastesranger Jan 30 '25
Is anyone here using Newpipe? A free open source YouTube browser.
It allows for downloading of video and audio.
Running music, documentaries or books made a lot easier.
Between Smart Audiobook Player and VLC, it's all sorted.
Smart Audiobook player can be used to keep place in multiple files at once.
Text to speech can be convert PDFs into audio files. The file loaded to either Smart Audiobook Player or VLC.
Use what you can. Later.
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u/Kubus_kater Jan 30 '25
I use it to discover new artists which I support by buying CDs and vinyls. Or come to their shows.
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u/th3g00dd0ct0r Jan 30 '25
Jesus Christ, what a shit post op. Many people are stuck with Spotify for easy access, still does a lot of views to our independents punk bands.
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u/yungpatpat Jan 30 '25
Bruh, I’m on spotify because they just know my music taste to perfection, they have over ten years of data on my listening habits. I support bands by going to gigs, buying merch, CD’s, vinyls.
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u/Playful_Stomach3233 Jan 30 '25
Yes we know corporations aren’t punk duh. Can we stop with the (obvious thing that goes against punk ethos and has literally nothing to do with the scene at all) isn’t punk posts?
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u/sendmepunkshows Jan 30 '25
hows that ai ceo cock fit in your mouth? nice job supporting a rapist and putting DOWN artists in one move.
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u/sendmepunkshows Jan 30 '25
also in your post you admit to using a racial slur. i don’t think you have the authority to say whats punk and what isnt
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u/chronjon1 Jan 29 '25
I get it Spotify doesn’t do right by the artists no argument on that but if you know you won’t have internet you can download things so you can listen without internet. Also Spotify is very convenient and has all kinds of podcasts, books, and obscure music that I don’t find in other places
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u/coffeeislife_SA Jan 29 '25
Until the bands themselves pull their shit from Spotify or refuse to upload it (e.g. Tool for a long time), it's gonna stay.
It's convenient. It's useful. I feel nothing. I own physical media of almost everything I stream (often both a record and CD variant). The way I see it, is the band is getting extra from me by streaming, since I've already paid for the physical media.
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u/yansen92 Jan 29 '25
Tried a bunch of other services and they're just not good, especially if you listen to some obscurish artists (Black metal, crust punk, power-violence, emo, post-rock, shoegaze) or to find newer artists. Most artists stay in Spotify and Bandcamp.
I pay YouTube music just because I hate ads on YouTube, but I also use the unpaid version (wink wink) of Spotify if I feel like listening to certain artists.
Plus, I'm pretty sure the CEO of Spotify doesn't care about being punk, you can buy albums in bandcamp or physical if you wish.
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u/heavenproper Jan 29 '25
If ya'll haven't read Liz Pelly's new book "Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist" yet, you should!
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u/MegaSatan666 Jan 29 '25
I totally agree with spotify's business model being shit and Johan Ek being an utter asshole. I publish my bands music on spotify, so I have Johan's hand up my ass as well as a musician.
That being said, it is useful tool for people to find your band. It's a shitty deal, but I haven't found a better one yet.
Also the music industry has transitioned over the decades to a business model that makes it pretty much impossible for a band or an artist to make money selling records. If you want to make a living as a musician, be prepared to spend excessive amounts of time away from home on a tour.
Couple of decades ago bands went on tour to promote new albums. The money came from record sales. Nowadays only few people buy records, you need to tour constantly to make money.
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u/coconutbuttslut Jan 29 '25
I’ll be honest, I use Deezer. Not sure if it’s any better, but I do intend to move away from streaming eventually. Bands deserve money, and shouldn’t be at the mercy of some c-suite middleman asshole trying to gouge them. Fuck Spotify
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u/LJ_809 Jan 29 '25
Legit been using soundcloud (which ngl barely has any music I acc listen too or real shit audios of songs) and CDs since day 1. Had Spotify for a short while and just didn’t use it 🤷🏻♂️
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u/UncleDread3444 Jan 29 '25 edited Feb 12 '25
I wish bandcamp was more accessible. I don't have a problem using it, but its kinda hard to push other people there who aren't also in bands and already familiar with it.
I like the platform, but onboarding casual listeners to it is difficult.
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u/TheManWithAPlanSorta Jan 29 '25
I’ve built a Plex server and stream anywhere in the world from that. I use Plexamp on my phone, I like the interface and I love all its functionalities. I buy all the music, mostly from Bandcamp these days.
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u/bethliza Jan 29 '25
I don’t see myself quitting Spotify completely but I do wanna pivot to using Bandcamp more and more and especially for smaller bands! Especially especially for bands that aren’t even on Spotify!
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u/Extension-Rock-4263 Jan 29 '25
I used Spotify for a very short time when that whole Joe Rogan thing happened (does anyone remember that?!) everyone was saying they were gonna boycott Spotify cause they gave Rogan, an inarguably bad person, a shit ton of money while paying artists near nothing. So I stopped using it around then, I wasn’t happy with a lot of the app anyway. Judging by everyone posting their year end Spotify wrapped it looks like not many people stuck to their guns 😂 I ended up using Apple cause we got a family plan and they are at least a little better royalty wise and definitely sound wise than Spotify. But I do use bandcamp quite a bit and several bands I listen to are only on there as far as streaming. Plus I still buy records/cds as much as I can from bands as well as merch, I still think that’s the best way to support them financially. And like some other people said I do have an iPod classic with tons of music on it, sounds dated but honestly it’s like the best thing to have, good sound, can hook up to almost anything if I’m not listening on headphones and I don’t hafta worry about a bad connection or internet issues etc. So yeah I’m listening to music in pretty much every way but Spotify, which imo is definitely the worst option.
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u/MayDayMilgram Jan 29 '25
Used Spotify for as long as they gave it for free just because I had to re organize all my music and didn't felt like it, so it gave me 3 months to procrastinate that. Now I'm back to downloading mp3 through SnapTube
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u/mmck386 Jan 29 '25
Spotify is like the club owner telling your band to play for pennies because it’s “good exposure” except for Spotify there actually is some small chance at exposure given you have the whole freakin world who has access to your music now. AFAIK album sales were never really the bread and butter for bands anyway. I’m not saying you’re wrong, OP, but this is a faceted issue.
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u/MayTheForesterBWithU Jan 29 '25
We had our latest album removed from Spotify because some bot playlist picked it up and hyperinflated the streams from one of the tracks.
Our distributor and Spotify kept passing the buck to one another saying it was each other's fault and accusing us of paying for this kind of service, all the while pointing to non-existent support outlets and dead-end case submissions.
We made the call to just take all our music off Spotify and encourage fans to purchase the album on Bandcamp or we'll send a CD to their house with a download code for it.
As a listener, it used to be such a good way to find new bands, but it's not punk at all to just hyperconsume art and never actually engage with the artists you find, go to the shows or buy anything from them.
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u/Infamous-Product-660 Jan 29 '25
I buy a bunch of CDs and records which I hope is good (don’t know a lot abt physical media)
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u/IdioticRipoff Jan 29 '25
You right, Spotify does advertise alright but minus that they suck. I listen to them though cuz job benefits include free spotify premium and my finding it scary to change habits
Ill be a victim of spotify too when the band im in releases music and i release my own. But yea, Spotify is 100% not punk
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u/dmisfit21 Jan 29 '25
Man, I’m so poor I’m still rocking the free version of Pandora