I used a Norwegian open-source tool to analyze my old Spotify data as a customer.
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being the neigbour country of sweden we got the propaganda early here in norway. and in the beginning it was all humans curating the playlists + i was listening to albums anyways, so it didn't affect my music listening in the beginning. (money aside)
but enshittification is real, so all those curators got fired and replaced by an algorithm.
reminds me of facebook (and the rest of big tech). great for the users in the beginning, über-evilcorp fucking us over now.
i wrote a blog post about how to find new music btw
https://www.kristofferlislegaard.com/blog/2025-11-05-be-your-own-algorithm-in-search-of-new-music/
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I used a Norwegian open-source tool to analyze my old Spotify data as a customer.
I don't use Spotify anymore, but I can announce that of all the money I ever paid them, approx. 5% went to the artists I listened to.
That is a pretty insane transfer of wealth from the bottom / middle to the top if you ask me.
I already knew Spotify is a big scam for those not at the top, but seeing the numbers still gives me a bodily reaction.
@lislegaard That even makes Apple's 30% look fair. Wow
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i wrote a blog post about how to find new music btw
https://www.kristofferlislegaard.com/blog/2025-11-05-be-your-own-algorithm-in-search-of-new-music/
@lislegaard Nice, thanks and will have a peek at some of the artists.
About two years ago I set up a signal groupchat called 'Music' with 10 or so friends around the world, and gave some logins for my navidrome server.
The amount of amazing music it's generated, and rabbit holes, is more than I'm able to even vaguely keep on top of.
some cool tunes here:
https://music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com/
I made to have a tiny, free, simple, always on streamer for some of them here:
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@lislegaard @nyovaya@transfem.socialyouwere searching for "vote for a Party", did you meant "start a Revolution after socialist ideals"
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@lislegaard @nyovaya @april I've always joked about it that people pirating my music has earned me more money than Spotify and all the other streaming services combined. Piracy costs me 0 dollars and I gained at minimum 0 dollars. (potentially more if people bought my music after pirating it, but impossible to track that)
Big tech streaming services on the other hand, if memory serves me right, have earned me somewhere around 200 dollars probably in the last 10+ years, but cost me I think 75 dollars a year to keep the music on them. In other words, they've earned me negative 550 dollars.
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@lislegaard @nyovaya@transfem.socialyouwere searching for "vote for a Party", did you meant "start a Revolution after socialist ideals"
indeed
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@lislegaard @nyovaya @april I've always joked about it that people pirating my music has earned me more money than Spotify and all the other streaming services combined. Piracy costs me 0 dollars and I gained at minimum 0 dollars. (potentially more if people bought my music after pirating it, but impossible to track that)
Big tech streaming services on the other hand, if memory serves me right, have earned me somewhere around 200 dollars probably in the last 10+ years, but cost me I think 75 dollars a year to keep the music on them. In other words, they've earned me negative 550 dollars.
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@lislegaard @nyovaya @april I've always joked about it that people pirating my music has earned me more money than Spotify and all the other streaming services combined. Piracy costs me 0 dollars and I gained at minimum 0 dollars. (potentially more if people bought my music after pirating it, but impossible to track that)
Big tech streaming services on the other hand, if memory serves me right, have earned me somewhere around 200 dollars probably in the last 10+ years, but cost me I think 75 dollars a year to keep the music on them. In other words, they've earned me negative 550 dollars.
i remember benn jordan / the flashbulb got sick of apple fucking him over back in the itunes days.
so he torrented his own music and put a text file that said that if you like the music you can donate something into this paypal account.
made more money on the torrented album than on itunes...
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i remember benn jordan / the flashbulb got sick of apple fucking him over back in the itunes days.
so he torrented his own music and put a text file that said that if you like the music you can donate something into this paypal account.
made more money on the torrented album than on itunes...
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Here's a link to the blog of J Willgoose from the band Public Service Broadcasting (see the Streaming Payment Rates entry) showing differing payments that bands get from different streaming services.
https://jwillgoose.tumblr.com/
Interesting and informative I think.
@ColinHaynes @lislegaard I remember the breakdown from a few years ago when Google Play Music was paying about 10x the rates of YouTube Music. And then it shut down.
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@ColinHaynes @lislegaard I remember the breakdown from a few years ago when Google Play Music was paying about 10x the rates of YouTube Music. And then it shut down.
Unlike Google to shut a service down.
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i wrote a blog post about how to find new music btw
https://www.kristofferlislegaard.com/blog/2025-11-05-be-your-own-algorithm-in-search-of-new-music/
@lislegaard @groot TBH, I don't understand how anyone has a problem finding new muaic. I discover new genres and musicians all the time, and I've never used spotify.
people tell me irl
someone plays a tune at a bar or social centre I go to
I browse (and buy from) bandcamp
I follow music sharing accounts and music lovers on fedi
I listen to radio streams from all over the world -
@lislegaard @groot TBH, I don't understand how anyone has a problem finding new muaic. I discover new genres and musicians all the time, and I've never used spotify.
people tell me irl
someone plays a tune at a bar or social centre I go to
I browse (and buy from) bandcamp
I follow music sharing accounts and music lovers on fedi
I listen to radio streams from all over the world@firn @lislegaard afaiu the issue is often that new music must be fed to them on demand via an algorithm they can just mash 'next' or 'like' on.
But I appreciate your point, it's like worrying about how one will get to see new cats if they delete facebook.
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@firn @lislegaard afaiu the issue is often that new music must be fed to them on demand via an algorithm they can just mash 'next' or 'like' on.
But I appreciate your point, it's like worrying about how one will get to see new cats if they delete facebook.
@groot @lislegaard Good call on the cats. Thankfully, there's caturday!
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@groot @lislegaard Good call on the cats. Thankfully, there's caturday!
@firn @lislegaard many years ago I had children, so I'm getting unsolicited cat pics for the rest of my days on earth.
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i wrote a blog post about how to find new music btw
https://www.kristofferlislegaard.com/blog/2025-11-05-be-your-own-algorithm-in-search-of-new-music/
@lislegaard @groot Always worth it to follow the connections. I follow a few musicians, and they are always posting about their friends, follow them, etc. Also just watching local small venue calendars is a great way to find folks as well.
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I used a Norwegian open-source tool to analyze my old Spotify data as a customer.
I don't use Spotify anymore, but I can announce that of all the money I ever paid them, approx. 5% went to the artists I listened to.
That is a pretty insane transfer of wealth from the bottom / middle to the top if you ask me.
I already knew Spotify is a big scam for those not at the top, but seeing the numbers still gives me a bodily reaction.
@lislegaard funny how piracy was such a big threat to musicians and how every single thing we (piracy defenders) told people about what was going to happen to the music industry came true.
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@lislegaard funny how piracy was such a big threat to musicians and how every single thing we (piracy defenders) told people about what was going to happen to the music industry came true.
including the line about how those who pirated the most were also the people who bought the most.
i reeeeeaaaallllyyy remember getting convinced that that was OF COURSE not the case. it's only logic, right?! why would someone who pirated music buy music!?
turns out that was indeed the case, because they were music lovers, and not passive consumers.
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I used a Norwegian open-source tool to analyze my old Spotify data as a customer.
I don't use Spotify anymore, but I can announce that of all the money I ever paid them, approx. 5% went to the artists I listened to.
That is a pretty insane transfer of wealth from the bottom / middle to the top if you ask me.
I already knew Spotify is a big scam for those not at the top, but seeing the numbers still gives me a bodily reaction.
@lislegaard i wonder who makes more from spotify: artists, engineers, or cloud & hardware companies?
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@lislegaard i wonder who makes more from spotify: artists, engineers, or cloud & hardware companies?
daniel ek.
