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Ethical alternatives to Spotify (slrpnk.net)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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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?

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[–] 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I buy on Bandcamp Fridays, but am suspicious of that platform since they changed owners so often without any input from the community or musicians.

I'm keeping my eye on https://subvert.fm/ as a hopefully more democratic option.

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  • [+] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    Thanks for sharing, this is a better write-up than I would've done.

    But yeah it really sucks because from the outside Bandcamp looks like a great "light touch" platform, but the truth is sadly much more cynical and anti-democratic.

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