Recent news revealed that Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek has been investing heavily in military tech companies, which adds another ethical layer to a platform already criticized for how little it pays musicians !
Spotify only pays artists about $3–5 per 1,000 streams, using a pro-rata model that directs most money toward major stars... By contrast, Qobuz (≈$18–20 per 1,000 streams) and Tidal (≈$12–13) pay far more fairly!
However Tidal is far from ethical. Most of its revenue is controlled by private investors and founders and small artists still earn very little...
More fair-minded platforms like Bandcamp, Resonate, Ampled, or SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties prioritize musicians over investors.
With these more ethical alternatives available, why do we keep using Spotify?
I find Spotify is dogshit to navigate I can't find anything. If I let it autoplay it'll just start playing generic shitty dance music. I don't get it. I've never discovered an artist through Spotify.
I exclusively use Bandcamp lately. Unfortunately, American owned. Looking into other suggestions here.
I used to discover artists on Pandora. That site was great.