Is BlockTheSpot for Spotify desktop safe? Also, xmanager? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by gemew26@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I stopped using a spotify cracked apk years ago when I noticed my email got hacked (technically, it may have been Pandora apk but I still decided to stop).

I have been recently paying premium for almost 1 year but I stopped working for a while I'd like to save some money. I'm wondering if BlockTheSpot by mrpond on GitHub is safe?

It looks like it's been updated 1 week ago so it should work. I'd assume anything on GitHub is safe but I'd still like to ask you guys.

Also, is there a way to download "Spotify for Windows (64 bit) 1.2.33.1039.g8ddb5918" safely... or do I just have to hope it works on the latest desktop version from the official spotify website and never update it?

EDIT: I'd like to also ask if xmanager for android is safe, I've been googling a bit about it and it'd be fantastic to be able to keep using spotify on my phone too, without listening to 1-2 ads per song

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[-] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 6 months ago

Just wanted to chime in and say that uBlock Origin also blocks Spotify Advertisements through web.

So if you’re okay with the webversion of Spotify, you can use that.

[-] eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 6 months ago

Just download the official client and use SpotX

[-] gemew26@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 months ago

thank you, regarding Android?

[-] eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 months ago

xmanager

[-] hasty3827@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah this works perfect for me too. Using full installation it even download the latest working Spotify and removes the ms store version automatically. But I can also confirm mrpond blockthespot is also safe, just different developers and less features.

[-] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 months ago

Xmanager is perfectly safe, been using it for a couple of years now. For a client, I recommend Spicetify. Setup is a bit more involved than a simple launcher but all instructions are provided and as simple as copy/paste. It also has editable themes and plugins for all kinds of additional functionality via a (free) marketplace. I've been using that for about 3 years and now won't accept anything less.

[-] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 6 points 6 months ago

xManager is safe. I've been using it for a few months now

[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 months ago

i use spotube

[-] andscape@feddit.it 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I had high hopes when I tried it out but frankly it's been almost unusable for me. Terrible performance, laggy UI, plenty of bugs, long loading times for songs...

I don't know if something in my mobile environment was messing with it but I use quite a few indie FOSS apps still in beta and none of them worked as badly as Spotube did. I'd love to go back to it if it improves, but for now it's just not worth the UX pain.

Edit: forgot to mention. The idea of sourcing tracks from YouTube is cool but causes loads od trouble in practice. I've found remixed versions streamed as the original, tracks with the intro from the music video, tracks with sound effects from the music video, and tracks that just cannot be streamed cause they aren't on YouTube. I know there's a feature to pick which version to stream, but it's quite a bit of UX friction and it didn't work often enough to be a showstopper.