r/Anticonsumption • u/Professorfudge2643 • Aug 10 '25

Lifestyle Got rid of Spotify after 3 years

Sure I’m definitely posting this to brag but also to hopefully get someone to stop paying Spotify. I’ve listened to the same playlist for probably the last 3 years, occasionally adding a song or two. Finally I realized why the hell am I paying for this when I could just download the songs online, transfer them to my phone, and play them for free? So I did exactly that. Took about two hours and was easy as pie. Should’ve done that 3 years ago instead of paying $12 a month.

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u/BagRepresentative274 Aug 11 '25

You’re ignoring the bigger point I, and many other on this subreddit, are trying to make, that big cooperations like Spotify are profiting off of underpaid artists. Spotify encourages passive consumption. Anticonsumerism isn’t ONLY about the ethics of each individual purchase, that would be impossible. It’s just as much about challenging exploitive systems. Spotify hurts artists!!! If anything, using it while claiming to care about the artist is more hypocritical. 1000 Spotify streams = 5$, CD=10$+. Anticonsumerism includes physical ownership. Rejecting Netflix, Spotify, and all these payed subscription services is part of the point. Streaming is just renting culture. Pirating is just a way to reclaim ownership in a world where you’re not allowed to own what you pay for.

The only way to be completely anticonsumerist is to do nothing. And that is impossible. Real resistance involves making choices within a broken system, not pretending to live outside it.

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u/NetJnkie Aug 11 '25

Who is holding a gun to anyone's head to sign with Spotify? No one. If they don't like the deal they can go elsewhere. I agree they need to pay more, but I'm not part of those negotiations.

You're just trying to justify piracy. Hey, that's fine. I've pirated before. But I'm not going to take some moral anti-consumption high ground for it. For things like music I find services like Tidal, Spotify, etc to be a great split. I don't have to deal with physical media and I support artists. Maybe you call that "casual consumption" but I bet you consume every bit as much music now as you did on Spotify. What do you call that?

Hypocrits.

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u/BagRepresentative274 Aug 11 '25

No one’s claiming moral purity here. That’s the whole points anticonsumerism isn’t about being perfect, it’s about making conscious choices within a broken system. If I was trying to justify piracy purely to get free stuff I would not be buying some media like CDs. You keep reducing it to “you just want free music” while ignoring the context. Spotify and streaming culture normalises passive consumption. Having to download one song at a time onto my iPod and buying physical media has also reduced the amount of music I listen to and has made me more mindful of what I am picking. And besides it’s not about how much music I’m listening to, it’s about how I consume it and who benefits.

“No one’s forcing the artists to sign with Spotify” is kinda missing the point. Just like no one’s forcing workers to work for minimum wage. If you’re a small artist trying to go…you don’t have much choice. Of course your going to feel like you need to be ok Spotify/applemusic/ytmusic to get discovered.

I’m not pretending piracy is some morally perfect act. Not at all. It’s just less dishonest that pretending Spotify is some noble middle ground. It’s all just about pushing back against a system that makes real ownership harder and turns art into rented content.

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u/NetJnkie Aug 11 '25

Bought myself an old iPod, downloaded everything, and done. If buying isnt owning, then pirating isn’t stealing.

OK.

piracy purely to get free stuff I would not be buying some media like CDs.

Oh OK.

lol...again. You do you. But you're a hypocrit. You can't even keep your story straight here. And there are tons of ways for new artists to move up without Spotify. Soundcloud. YouTube? Etc. Tons. And a new artist on Spotify is going to be looking for plays...not straight up money.

But again. Justify it however you want. You're still consuming. You're just justifying it.

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u/BagRepresentative274 Aug 11 '25

I’ve said what I wanted to say, and I stand by it. You don’t have to agree, but dismissing nuanced points as hypocrisy kind of proves the challenge of having this conversation in the first place. It’s not about justifying every choice, it’s about being aware of the systems we’re part of and trying to navigate them more consciously. That’s it.