Or just don’t use Spotify
Hell yeah
What’s the best alternative? It’s been a while since I used any of them. I checked Tidal recently and it looked like they have an AI slop problem too.
I haven’t had it be an issue with Tidal. Tidal doesn’t have a strong autoplay algorithm so it tends to nudge users toward more custom curated Playlists. It has a buggy app, make it difficult to block songs or artists, and no duplicate filter which is frustrating, but I don’t agree that AI slop is a very big issue currently. They seem proactive in fighting it and have always been one of the most artist friendly services.
I use Qobuz now, and they are great, with human-curated playlists and suggestions. So far, I love it.
I buy music (mostly from Bandcamp). Now I have a big library and no subscription fee.
Download your own music and set up navidrome. For music discovery, go to shows and find out about bands from the scene.
Or set up a listenbrainz.org account to get weekly recommendation playlist, check the accounts of people who listen to similar artists, and click through those addictive spider web charts that show you a bunch of artists who are similar to the one you’re listening to.
There’s also Rate Your Music, which I don’t have an account at but it still seems pretty good.
Spotify? the company that ran ICE ads?
Among other questionable decisions
Yet another platform with meaningless badges
I don’t even begin to trust Spotify to tell me which sponsored Spotify content is only algorithmically served to me by Spotify AI, not created with it.
Spotify is such a shit company. I used to get paid (peanuts) on my artist account but they raised the threshold for getting payouts so now I get nothing.
Take your music down
Picked up a dedicated audio device recently (with another few on the way!), and it feels nice to curate my own offline, add-free, algorithm-free listening experience. Having music myself his been half the fun of this, I won’t be using any streaming app going forward.
It is also super adorable:
How do you discover new artists? That is the main thing keeping me from doing this.
KEXP, Audiotree, Tiny Desk and more
Plus the bands that open for the bands I like. Even if I don’t go to the concert, I look up who’s opening it.
Listen to the radio, read music news or listen to podcasts if you prefer, go to local music venues
Any particular news sites you like or just a general app with music categories selected?
I just the mainstream news like Rolling Stone or Billboard, I do have Readly subscription which has access to less mainstream magazines
Oh man, wait until you’re camping craigslist ads for used DAPs (Digital audio player, fancy speak for music player)… I got my DX180 for cheap there, then picked up some grados. Decent headphones and a good audio chip is some magic shit.
Can you sync the music to it wirelessly?
No! Just via a USB cable.
I just got another one delivered yesterday which has a slot for an SD card, though. But tbh this is the benefit to me, it forces me to be intentional with what I load on.
Too little too late
Wtf?? They made tons of the AI slop on their themselves!
It’s virtue signaling
The two things are not in contradiction. Identifying human-generated content is essential to AI too. if you feed AI slop back to AI, their output deteriorates quickly. Not saying that it’s the primary purpose of this new feature, but this is making it easier for AI to find human-generated music to train on.
Interested in seeing how this will be gamed
Step 1) create an unnecessary problem
Step 2) solve said problem
Step 3) profit???
Go fuck yourselves Spotify
I don’t get the appeal of Spotify. Pay monthly for music? That’s crazy.
You get a much larger selection than by buying individual records, though.
It is amazing how everytime I check they dont have what I want. Yet you are correct, there is lot of options there.
I’ll never understand Spotify. If it’s such a pain in the ass why do people use it? Napster was big when I was in high school so if I find a song I like, I go download it. Sometimes it’s piracy. Sometimes it’s a legitimate purchase. Whichever is easiest.
Done. The end. It’s mine forever.
As far as discoverability goes it helps that there have been no new music releases in the past couple of decades that I care about.
People are lazy and don’t think very much. Spotify is right there.
Also enshittification: it was better to draw people in, and then they made it shittier and people stay
And with Artist Profile Protection (currently in beta), artists now have greater control over what appears on their profile, which helps to ensure the music you see is coming from them.
From the Artist Profile Protection link:
Music has been landing on the wrong artist pages across streaming services, and the rise of easy-to-produce AI tracks has made the problem worse. That’s not the experience we want artists to have on Spotify, and that’s why we’ve made protecting artist identity a top priority for 2026. Today, we’re announcing a first-of-its-kind solution to a problem that’s affected streaming for years.
How the hell is that something that is only in beta in 2026 and not a standard feature? It’s currently optional, but they better automatically opt in verified “No AI” artists if the label is going to be worth anything. There should not be AI-generated songs from randos getting attached to a “No AI” artist.
Where’s my “No Autotune” label?
