I was shocked to learn that Spotify was headquartered in Sweden. Until I read about Spotify and their CEO I had assumed they were based in America because to me they were just like all the other big tech companies in terms of lack of morals and ethics.
Spotify has a deal with Joe Rogan worth up to $250 million according to an article published in Variety. This was the deal that was signed in 2024. They’ve previously given Joe Rogan other very lucrative deals giving Rogan a massive platform and funding to spread disinformation, propaganda and lies and don’t forget things like saying the N word.
So by using Spotify you’re funding Joe Rogan who as we all know is based in America.
But that’s not the only way your money was used to support the far-right in America. Spotify donated to Trump’s inauguration. Do you want your money being used to bribe Trump?
In addition Spotify has also garnered controversy for allowing ICE recruitment ads and is already being boycotted by groups such as Indivisible.
Also let’s talk about Daniel Ek who was until recently their CEO but will still be very involved with Spotify. Was he born in Sweden? Yes. But what are his values like? Are they different from American billionaires? “Daniel Ek warns Sweden that Spotify may be forced to grow elsewhere” hmmmm… I kind of having a feeling that might be a no.
Another thing is I researched how many employees Spotify has in each country and multiple websites such as this one claimed they have the most in the United States. At the end of the day how much of a European company is Spotify if they just have their headquartes in Sweden and is from what I’ve read mostly used for executives and operations?
You know what they say “if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”. I personally don’t see any reason for treating Spotify different from all the US-based big tech companies but I’ll admit at the end of the day it is true they are headquartered in the EU so I propose a compromise: use Spotify as much as you like as long as you’re using the free version and using the website (not the app which has more ability to collect data and track you) with an ad blocker such as uBlock Origin. Cancel your subscriptions. When you cancel mention that you don’t like your money being used to fund disinformation via paying Joe Rogan so much money.
I’ve had other people tell me that as well. Somehow I’ve been exempt. Maybe because I occasionally listen to punk and proper antifascist music and maybe the algorithm picked up on it? But I’m using a separate podcast app anyway, because I never liked how Spotify tries to centralize podcasting. So I can’t really make a statement how this turns out for podcasts.
I’m fine with Tidal as well. Seems the search function sometimes sucks. It has the same amount of useful music, most just carried over. I got one artist who isn’t on Tidal, but in turn I can listen to a different one again, who quit Spotify… And the recommendations algorithm is still trying to home in on my taste, which isn’t easy. Spotify was never able to do a good job at recommending new music to me.
I listen mostly to electronic music, especially house, and I never listened to a single podcast on Spotify, so no idea why it started pushing those far-right podcasts!
I find the recommendations on Tidal and Spotify to be pretty different from each other, but one isn’t necessarily better than the other. Spotify will recommend dozens of tracks that sound almost identical to one I like, while Tidal suggestions are broader as they pull from related subgenres.
Weird. Yes. seems to be the same for me with the recommendations. I currently enjoy the different approach… Though, I listen to things ranging from The wheels on the bus go round and round, to Dubstep, death metal, summer of 69, old-school hip-hop, death metal, punk, punkrock, Irish traditionals or weird banjo music. Loads of pirate metal… Just rarely mainstream pop. I figured Spotify just gave up at some point and rolled dice with a lot of the same stuff pulled from my playlists. Which wasn’t great because I love discovering new music. And I don’t just enjoy any random music from genres I like… We’ll see where this is going with Tidal, I didn’t have too much time in the last few weeks to listen to music so it probably still needs to figure out what I do. So far it’s not half bad.