Spotify and apps like it. Imagine paying a subscription to a subpar selection of music when you could just download mp3s. Imagine having skipping a song being a privilege. Are you an abused kid? Is drinking water a privilege too? I paid once for BlackPlayer simply because it’s my favorite music player app. The most important features were free.

Downvoted for hating on Spotify. That’s just sad.

I don’t care what crap Spotify offers; it’s well known they go out of their way to avoid paying royalties to the artists. They’re a leech, nothing more, and I will never support them.

Piracy pays them more though?

Sometimes it does. Piracy drives up sales of traditional media (think: vinyl), as well as increasing crowd size at live performances. Also, merch sales scale with awareness of an artist. All of these things equal the payout of millions of plays on spoffy.

Except that using spotify does all of that as well.

I’m not saying that spotify is good. But thinking piracy is better for the artist than spotify is delusional.

I’m delusional, then. Spotify hasn’t paid me a red cent, but piracy has indirectly put money in my pocket and food on my table.