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.
Besides the political aspects… The main reason why Spotify should be boycotted is the fact that they exploit artists (small and large artists receive virtually nothing for their streamed music) and flood the market with AI-generated music…
Here’s a good read about streaming payouts in 2025: https://rebelmusicdistribution.com/2025/08/22/which-streaming-service-pays-the-most-per-1000-streams-in-2025-top-5-platforms/
Qobuz (who payout the most beside Napster) is a European company.
Don’t forget to use alternatives. There are many out there !
- Bandcamp
- Quobuz
- Soundcloud
- Deezer
- YouTube Music
And you can find more here : https://alternativeto.net/category/audio-and-music/music-streaming/
I’d love to but only options I have in India are Spotify, Prime, Apple, and YouTube.
Is Qobuz 🇫🇷 available there?
No😪
It’s buried in my post but I feel the most ethical solution would be to use Spotify with an ad-blocker and use the free tier. Also I believe using YouTube with an ad blocker is pretty ethical too since you’re not financially support Google by viewing ads. I think Apple can also be used for free but I never tried it. Prime I would recommend boycotting because even the paid version has ads.
That doesn’t work on mobile. I tried for almost a year.
That meaning YouTube or Spotify? For YouTube I do know a workaround: you can request the desktop version of the website and it will allow you to continue playing music even when locking your screen or using another app.
Spotify. I use NewPipe for YouTube.
I haven’t ever tried using Spotify on mobile. What issue do you run into?
Spotify with adblocker doesn’t work in Firefox. Not in mobile mode, not in desktop mode. Give it a try and you’ll see.
Wat? Why are those your only options? There’s also Qobuz (DRM free), Deezer, and Soundcloud.
First two are not available in India. SoundCloud is good for indie but it doesn’t have mainstream music.
Oh really? That sucks! What error do you encounter when trying to use Qobuz or Deezer?
Of course I thought of using VPN or downloading APK separately but I didn’t for the same reason I don’t fuck around with Steam account. I don’t want to get banned from the platform.
Makes sense. That’s tough, man. You could send them a message to ask why they don’t serve India. I’d be curious about the response. Honestly, I don’t see why they’d ignore a potential market of 500 million people or so.
Would we call Apple an Irish company because they evade taxes in Ireland?
You’ve lost me there. I won’t disagree with your points, but I am curious…
Spotify was created and built in Sweden by Swedish people. I know nothing about what you are referring to regarding the far right and Joe Rogan etc. - I have heard of him, but I do not know anything about him, what he looks like or what he has actually said about anything. I do know that (I think) he is very far right in his opinion.
But… Can the far left or whoever are the opposite of these extreme politics not just pay for advertisements or produce popular content etc. on the same platform, would spotify take their money, allow their content for profit?
Or
Are spotify exclusively working and promoting the far right?
I don’t agree with shutting down somebody or something because you don’t agree with them or it. I believe it could be far more effective and better for everyone if you explain why you think somebody is wrong in what they are saying, and what way you think it would be better to do something that they are talking about.
The Irish government allowing Apple, Google, Amazon and other big tech to not pay any taxes whilst not really helping the country as a whole is a good reason for the Irish to dislike them, but they (the government) believe that the employment - and more importantly the money that they bring to them is more important than their countries future. It will not be 20 years before they have all pulled out and left Ireland like one of the barren states in the U.S., devoid of employment, with both Dublin and Cork falling into Urban decay.
It is possible to agree with a little bit of one and little bit of the other, and a lot of neither. No point in silencing one to make your voice louder. Just make your points better.
I see your point about my Apple example. I ended up thinking about this more and removed it from my post because it’s not a good example.
I will say I did research where Spotify has the most employees and it says they have the most in the United States so it’s not built solely by Swedish people. In fact I suspect the percentage of Spotify built by Swedish people to be somewhat low or very likely less than 50% but I don’t have enough information to be sure on this, this is conjecture on my part.
For far-right I’m saying that Trump is far-right so supporting Trump is supporting the far-right in America.
Joe Rogan actually isn’t the most extreme right wing person. What I object to most is his willingness to spread disinformation. Here’s a good article about him: https://www.mediamatters.org/joe-rogan-experience/joe-rogan-wrapped-year-covid-19-misinformation-right-wing-myths-and-anti-trans
In fact the very first line in the article is “Joe Rogan: “You can say whatever you want. We’re on Spotify.””.
I suspect that yes the “far-left” would be allowed to use Spotify and a quick glance seems to show that it’s allowed.
About shutting things down because of disagreements I understand you there. If someone believed all bike sheds should be painted blue and someone else thought they should be painted green in that case it’s likely blue advocates would try to shut down the green advocate’s podcasts simply due to disagreements even thought it would be wrong to do so.
But now let’s imagine this: the people in favor of blue paint started to be dishonest by spreading disinformation and advocated for harming people who wanted green paint. Isn’t that different morally? I do thank platforms should take a stance against disinformation.
Also with my paint example neither opinion causes harm to society. What happens if someone advocates for things that are harmful to others like anti-vax? That has real world consequences.
About trying to make better points that’s also a good point, no matter if Rogan is allowed or not we should be doing this.
I do thank platforms should take a stance against disinformation.
Definitely. That should be enforced more. Companies should be fined every time they allow their platform to be used to spread disinformation. €1 for every person believed to have read/listened/viewed something. If 500,000 people viewed it and it spread to millions, then obviously the larger effect should have a deeper reach into their pockets.
There is no “far left” - not in the sense of the organised “far right”, that is, with massive financiers behind it - because what could be considered far left is generally a group of fringe edgelords who firmly believe that e.g Russia, North Korea or China are 1, prime examples of well implemented communism 2, these countries can do no wrong 3, we should all bow to them and follow their ways. Basically just as batshit as the far right, but considerably smaller in numbers and even more excluded as the far right is by the general right…
My family canceled our plan a few months ago due to the AI weapons investment. I’ve switched back to an mp3 player because my phone doesn’t have adequate storage for a music library.
I can’t boycott them, I never had Spotify to begin with. :(
Same with Klarna, avoid it too if you can.
I’ve switched to Tidal a few months ago when Spotify increased prices. Mainly for reasons like this. I wouldn’t recommend them here, though. It’s an US company and for some reason the majority owner is some financial technology company since a few years. But we certainly do have alternatives to Spotify and those services work just fine.
I switched to Tidal a year ago because Spotify kept recommending Joe Rogan and Trump/Musk podcasts and there was no way to opt out. First I tested Deezer and Qobuz but unfortunately didn’t like them. Tidal is a US company but they’re way less unethical than Spotify and their service is much better IMO.
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.
Tidal was bought by Jay-Z. It’s no longer European. There’s a short documentary about it on youtube. (or you can just read the wikipedia article).
I think for people wanting to switch off Spotify, but stay with something European, Qobuz could be worth a look as they are from France and have similar focus on better audio quality similar to tidal.
I tried Qobuz, but the lack of the Finnish music was disappointing me. I mainly listen to the older rock and pop music.
That is sad to hear and based on the other replies it seems not too uncommon that something niche is missing.
Imo it’s really fascinating how music streaming is different in that regard compared to video streaming. Where more people are just happy with whatever e.g. Netflix offers them and don’t seem to mind too much, if one particular thing isn’t on their service.
But I guess the fact that in regards to music everyone has a slightly different taste and each one really wants that particular, different niche artist is what so far has prevented a similar fragmentation of services happening as we see with video.
Long time Spotify subscriber who started using Qobuz when I found out Spotify was playing ICE recruitment ads. Having a hard time with the selection of music. I think Qobuz has a little over 100 million tracks and Spotify has 260 million. The sound quality on Qobuz is off the charts though. Hoping to download my Spotify library and set up a self-hosted alternative soon.
Have you found the smaller selection to be an issue in practice? Because most of what’s on Spotify never gets played, so the raw numbers without context don’t really give an answer to how good the selection is.
Since Anna’s archive recently downloaded most of Spotify we got some context to the statistics. See for example here. Only a fraction of those 260 million get listened to. And the number alone doesn’t tell how many of the actually relevant tracks are on a streaming service.
Have you found the smaller selection to be an issue in practice?
Yes. I listen primarily to electronic music, a decent amount of it is from lesser-known artists, and I regularly find tracks I really like that Spotify has and Qobuz doesn’t. Most recently Certified by EAZYBAKED.
I am in a similar situation as the one you’re asking here and I have sadly found Qobuz’s selection too lacking in practice for me to use it which is a real shame because there’s a lot to like about it. For example, attempting to import my favourite songs playlist from Spotify or Apple Music to Qobuz resulted in only ~60% being carried over. The majority of my missing songs were from a large variety of japanese artists or very niche genres like beatboxing, so I think most people would find their selection perfectly fine.
Based on the other replies it seems indeed like niche genres and non English music seems to be a weak spot, which really is unfortunate. Only 60% success rate in your case is indeed a deal breaker.
lol sweden is an oligarcs dream nowadays
Ive been boycotting Spotify since the inauguration of Trump. Should have done it earlier. Using Qobuz now for streaming, but mainly buy stuff via artists or bandcamp
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
Agreed. I’m using Qobuz as of now and I can’t say I miss spotify
They’re based in Sweden, though traded on the US stock market, and have a lot of staff in the US. Also, their union-busting policies (in Sweden and elsewhere) are out of step with Swedish industrial relations norms.
For anyone looking alternative apart from offline mp3’s and Torrenting, check Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer and BandCamp.
And SoundCloud
Yes soundcloud!
