Excluding location data, I think that information is reasonable given a lot of a music streaming service’s purpose is helping the user find new music and expand their playlists. That information helps them create accurate recommendations, and I dom’t see how most of that could be used nefariously, nor why they would ever want to do that.
The amount of collected data can be unsettling, but Spotify is one compromise I’m willing to make given how useful it is to me in my day to day life.
Biggest issue here is you are actually paying for MP3 material !!
If you truly appreciate music, go for higher res products … with the appropriate equipment, your ears will thank you !
I stopped using Spotify about 5 years ago due to privacy concerns, but then I realized I have no problem tweeting about music I’m listening to, and find the idea of my Discord status constantly showing music I listen to very cool. I guess it just depends on your threat model - something I have yet to delve into.
Oh hey, first ever contribution to this forum!
For music, soulseek is much better than torrenting.
Probably. IMO it’s dangerous to use Spotify with your real info, as they can make inferences about your psychological state based on your listening habits. But, as long as you can break that link to your real identity it should be fine. Not ideal, but fine.
I feel like it’s one thing to let everyone know that you like certain songs, and another thing to allow some company to know what you’re listening to 24/7.
Yeah, I guess so. Because companies like Spotify and Discord can use timestamped music to analyze how you felt at any minute of the day, right? Shame. Although again, it probably depends on threat models.
+1. It’s all about threat model.
Generally my threat model is quite strict, but I have no qualms using Spotify. I’m a musician, and listening to music is a huge part of my life, so the recommendations I get with Spotify are huge, and something I wouldn’t want to walk away from.
Also, just because a service knows what you listen to and when, it doesn’t necessarily mean they can draw conclusions about your mental state. For me personally, I listen to music upwards of 5-10 hours a day quite indiscriminately, and I always listen to a wide range of styles and genres. There are, quite literally, 0 conclusions that can be drawn objectively from my listening data.
Anyways, point being it’s all about threat model.
On a personal note, I’d love to leave Spotify over ethical concerns as an artist myself, but as a listener, I get the best music suggestions and currations from them, so I can’t see myself leaving for quite some time.
Yes, and if this data is shared to other big companies, they can use this information to paint an even more accurate profile.
I’m a regular InnerTune user, it works for the most part so I have no plans of returning to Spotify ever. Although if I ever fulfill my dream of making music, working with Spotify will be unavoidable (then again even if I make music I probably wouldn’t make it my main career, especially as my affinity to CC licenses slashes income from royalties).
I was mostly just thinking about Discord’s Rich Presence/ListenBrainz. My music history is also quite varied, although you never know what advanced ML models could deduce.
Also I should probably note, my dad bought an Apple Music family subscription and has since been bugging my sister and I to use it too, and surprised by our lack of interest. He’s a true audiophile.
Personally i just opt to buy my music and download it locally, making my own backups to proton drive.
I used to download music from YouTube/Spotify (Through SpotiFlyer) and store it all on my phone, but then I discovered just how convenient InnerTune is and switched to it.
Buying MP3s is certainly something I’d consider for an artist I really like and want to support, but not something I would do for every song in my library. Unfortunately many of my favorite bands I just checked don’t sell MP3s, although I might buy a CD just to support them.
I like turntable disks, they make me appreciate the music more.
Where do you buy it ?
One nice thing about Spotify is that they have a Linux app.
I have bought hundreds of songs from Qobuz myself, all neat high res FLAC files which i can store and listen too offline without any disruptions or chance of my songs disappearing because of licensing disputes.
The most common destination is Bandcamp.
Spotify allows you to store music for offline use (download mode). Download your media then block permissions.
Or use an old phone without a sim card just for music.
The quality is still trash.
@Lukas Only listens to the finest DXD 32 bit/384hz flac files mastered by god himself ;p
Mp3’s the reason artists are robbed blind by Apple, Spotify …etc.