No, there’s no strategy to make people listen less, or serve ads to paying subscribers (only to free tier). Spotify has basically free and premium, that’s about it.
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There are easy ways to make people listen less (in terms of # of streams). Here’s one. When Spotify creates an artist’s “radio” or when it puts together a playlist, pick longer songs. But when Spotify created a radio for my band almost all of the other songs are about 2 minutes long.
I’ve never put any of my music on Spotify – there are all the aforementioned reasons (lack of pay for artists, the accelerated enshitification of digital music distribution, etc.), but also because I don’t use it for listening to or discovering music. When it first became a thing, I didn’t really get it – I still don’t understand how the f*ck any of that stuff works. I’m old fashioned, I guess, when it comes to music – when I can I still listen to physical media on an actual stereo system (which isn’t nearly as often as I’d like). And I feel like I find new music largely through friends and family, and sometimes discovering stuff via YouTube or, here on this forum! Besides the YouTube/Elektronauts part, that’s not so different for me than it was in the 90s. I’m sure I’m missing out on things here and there, but I don’t feel deprived of good stuff to listen to. Spotify doesn’t feel and hasn’t ever felt like a useful tool for me as a listener, and thus not a useful tool for me as a musician, either.
I have had a few people ask if they can find my music on Spotify, and I have a bunch of unsold CDs I’d love to be out in the world instead of sitting on a shelf in my office. But if a potential listener is only willing to hear what I’ve done via some morally- and ethically-questionable streaming service whose business relies on screwing artists out of reasonable compensation for their work, then they’re not likely to appreciate what I do anyway. And to @dr_laemmerbein – I feel very much the same way about wanting people to hear (and, with hope, enjoy) the music I make – the “validation” you mentioned in your original post. It’s frustrating to feel like so few people know or care when I’m putting everything I have into these tunes. But I also feel like part of being an artist, even if it isn’t also your profession/career, means creating your art isn’t optional – you have to do it. Other people appreciating what you’ve created and connecting with it, and with you, is an added bonus. At least that’s what I’m telling myself these days.
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I completely get it. And I run a digital distribution service. It’s always been a numbers game. And the changes Spotify is making make even that much harder for the little guys to get noticed or paid. It’s a shame. Spotify could very easily open up forums or communities for verified artists but they won’t. They don’t want to lose control of that data.
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Actually very creative tracks you did, Infinity was kind a fun track - its possibly not mainstream enough - but its what i think is very ambitous music -if you only do it for 3 years - you got talent.
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I grew up in a dirt poor place 3 times smaller than Tampa a few decades ago, where 40% of all youth were gopniks, the other 40% were metalheads, yet still there was underground electronic music scene. There were a few “official” venues and the rest were amateur festivals in abandoned factories, which I really loved. Sometimes they were happening even during winter, when the weather would drop below 15 celsius. A lot of unknown artists used to play in these raves, they were such a delight. Besides this there were a few indie bars, we also used to listen to underground rock, indie, hiphop and so on. But we were always outside. Spotify did not exist back then. 
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Although this thread began out of frustration and sadness, the general nostalgia in many posts makes me rather happy. This is such a cool planet! Look at us all having made music, still making music, having experienced concerts as teens, and still now.
Ok Spotify is weird, but so is Tool asking hundreds of dollars for a seat for their upcoming tour in Europe. I can’t afford it. But I can afford a Syntakt, buy the album’s I love, and embed myself in all your music and energies.
It’s a good life, even if I have economic hardships, and I worry about getting older. But there’s art and creativity and meditation and forums like this one. For free. Yeah!
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I get the sentiment, but this is a fallacy. Works are never finished but abandoned (some Picasso dude said this afaik). We just have to accept that the best we can is good enough, because expectations are the enemy of creativity.
Saw this on Reddit earlier:
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My point was not about when a song was finished but when it was good enough to be shown to the public. These are two different stories. Not all songs we write are publishable material, some of it is simply a necessary passage to evolve in songwriting. Feedback from others also gets you there, though they won’t listen to it a hundred times.
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Damn! How man gon eat on only 45k? 
Summary
Did somebody say Just Eat?
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Good call. I’ve been having a go at uploading stuff here over the last couple of weeks and it seems great.
Things are picking up steam- I have two followers 
and only one of them is my wife!
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That probably wouldn’t cover a month’s worth of green groceries for Snoop 
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didn’t he quit green groceries?
maybe because of spotify…
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Being on edibles only now….
But yeah obviously the example stands, I just found it humorous that he undoubtedly gets more from streams than every Elektronaut combined many times over.
Also yeah fuck spotify, not just today but forever.
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Did chatGPT write that?
edit: lols… guess it got deleted the fvck out
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I kind of understand the fuck Spotify movement, but also am a bit confused.
I get it, rich get richer, algorithm fucks you over often, but still, from customer perspective - it’s a great way to explore music and a super convenient way to listen to music.
I have found many great artists through Spotify, not only because they were recommended based on my previous listening, but also by friends (watching their activity or just talking about music) or somewhere online and they just happened to be on Spotify and I was able to check the music with 2 clicks. I ended up buying vinyls of some of the albums I loved.
The thing is that if you’re not on Spotify it’s super hard to find you, or requires an additional effort which creates friction. I love music man, but it pisses me off if I have to use 3 different apps/pages and juggle between those, when I have Spotify connect in my speakers and I can play some music in 2 clicks.
I know cases when someone got featured on some playlist and got loads of gigs because of it.
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Convenience good.
Where subscription/ad money goes irrelevant.
music in ear = nice
Sure, I agree with that, just not the bit about screwing musicians over.
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mcdonald’s is convenient too. people trade a lot for convenience. spotify is no different. consumers are fine w/getting something for next to nothing and not thinking about where it comes from and how it works. it’s half the problem with our current reality. everything can be at your fingertips w/o even thinking about it. people’s behavior is disconnected from the things they consume. their awareness of the facts doesn’t even matter. devaluing music further doesn’t matter. and if it doesn’t matter then why bother with it?
i’d rather have the 50-100 fans who are into it than give distrokid $49 or whatever it is… a year so a bunch of people who don’t really give a shit can have convenience. if it’s not worth going to a different website to listen to… well… then… i mean… it’s a two way street.
i had all my stuff and the entire label on streaming services for years and only a few people complained when i removed it all to give rights back to the artists to do whatever they want w/their tunes…
i gave it a go for another 2 years with my own music and i’m satisfied that i’m better off focusing on the handful of people who are already fans than worrying about the untold masses. maybe that’s sour grapes but it is what it is.
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