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.
People look at me like I’m crazy when I say I just buy music (usually from Bandcamp). It’s not always more expensive, I get to keep the files drm free, and the people making music get paid
Buying can be cheaper depending on how much new music you are listening too. And it is probably more expensive in the beginning when you don’t have anything in your own library. But after some time you can skip months without buying anything.
How is the quality of the music from Bandcamp?
You generally get the FLAC recording in bandcamp. I do buy there, but noway it is cheaper than Spotify: one album will generally go around 10-15€, while I believe Spotify is some 10€/month.
But then again, I have thousands of albums in my library, probably I could stop buying music and be good for a while.
Maybe there’s regional pricing but usually albums are like $5 - $10, which is less than Spotify’s $12/mo. But then there are discounts and family plans and whatnot. Plus if you want a lot of albums in a month, that’ll be more up front.
I tend to only buy a new album every month or so, so I feel like I’m spending about the same. But more importantly I get to keep the music, so some months I buy nothing and still have music.