The end of November used to mean something.

It wasn’t just that the festive season was mere weeks away, or that Black Friday shopping madness was imminent, but that something fun and exciting was about to drop at any moment: Spotify Wrapped.

But this year, the internet is uncharacteristically quiet during the period when Spotify Wrapped typically appears. The lack of anticipation comes during a challenging time for the streaming platform, as it faces backlash on such issues as artist compensation, AI-generated music and ICE recruitment ads.

First, there’s artist compensation. Spotify has long been criticized for its dismal payouts to artists. Earlier this year, some Grammy-nominated songwriters even boycotted a Spotify awards event in response to the company’s decision to reduce royalty rates for songwriters and publishers by merging its premium music service with audiobooks last year.

Then there was the outcry around Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek’s investment in Helsing, a German defence company. When the news broke that the CEO had been funding the AI military tech company through his investment firm Prima Materia, indie artists like Massive Attack, Deerhoof and Godspeed You! Black Emperor pulled their music from the platform in protest during the summer.

  • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
    26·
    17 hours ago

    It’s basically unethical to use Spotify and we’re seriously doomed if shit like Spotify wrapped is more important to people than the consequences of reality

    • KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      10·
      15 hours ago

      Keep track of every company that airs ICE/Military ads in 2025. Amazon does it through Twitch. I wouldn’t be surprised if Meta has some. They all need to collapse.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
        4·
        10 hours ago

        ICE ads have been running on Amazon properties (Twitch, Amazon Prime Video), Google properties (YouTube), Meta properties (Facebook, Instagram), LinkedIn, Twitter, Spotify, etc. Basically any big tech platform with an ads business.

  • KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    10·
    15 hours ago

    There is no reason to keep Spotify alive. Artists would make more putting their content on YouTube. This is a great opportunity for a streaming service with actually decent rates to spring up!

  • Greddan@feddit.org
    19·
    18 hours ago

    Probably not. Most of my friends and acquaintances think music is Spotify. They cannot comprehend the existence of competing streaming platforms and become aggressive when the subject is brought up. It’s a bit like how every screen is an iPad to certain people.

    • criticon@lemmy.ca
      7·
      15 hours ago

      After 8 years my wife finally told me that she will leave her friend’s “family” account because she doesn’t want to support Spotify. I’ve been using YouTube music since it launched (as Google Play music) but I’m not sure that is any better (ethically)

  • noredcandy@lemmy.world
    25·
    19 hours ago

    For me, it’s really two things. The first, the app is a bloated mess. Between videos, podcasts, and just tons of promotions, it’s become a chore to just open up the app and start playing music. Secondly, it’s just been getting expensive honestly. Annual price increases are crazy to me when the service is getting worse. Their lossless roleout was also a let down between delays and lower quality than competing services.

  • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
    8·
    17 hours ago

    We cancelled Spotify early this year. We likely won’t go back. Don’t really miss it. We have YouTube Premium and that includes their music service which is enough for us.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
        2·
        10 hours ago

        This isn’t true, royalty payments are fairly similar across streaming services, on account of how much money gets in via the subscription prices. Trying to divide the royalty payments by stream count is largely irrelevant on account of them having no correlation with the royalty payments, these are instead based on the fraction of total streams on the platform.

        It’s even less true on account of artists not getting directly paid through streaming services, it’s all getting funneled to the people who own the rights to the music itself, which is the labels.

        • zqps@sh.itjust.works
          3·
          12 hours ago

          Does it perhaps have the “remote control session” feature that Spotify has when logged in on multiple devices? I’ve ditched Spotify but am still looking for a platform with this feature.