A blog post by Malti on The Femme Urge, with exactly one mission: getting you out of Spotify. It earned its place here because it does both halves, the why and the how.
The why: Spotify pays artists between 0.005 per stream (and since 2024, zero if you get under 1,000 streams a year); it fills its own popular playlists with “ghost artists”, stock music it never owes royalties on, a story Liz Pelly documents in Mood Machine; its algorithm rewards 31-second hooks and constant releases, so whole discographies flatten into background decoration; it paid Joe Rogan up to 600 million into military AI.
The how: Tidal pays 3 to 4 times more per stream, Qobuz about 6 times more and sells DRM-free downloads, and both label AI-generated music. On Bandcamp Fridays 100% of what you spend goes to the artists. And the author’s favourite move: rebuild a personal library, album by album, and get recommendations from actual humans. Choosing music actively again, instead of letting a feed decorate your time.