The ads urge listeners to “join the mission to protect America” by becoming U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but users of the music streaming giant have taken to social media and Spotify’s website to complain, and announce their withdrawal from the audio platform.
The tough part is that my parents are on my Spotify family plan and not tech savvy at all to use anything that I would self host. I know I can patch Spotify app and self host content on my PC but there’s no way they could troubleshoot anything if something broke. For them Spotify works and me not using my own Spotify account isn’t going to accomplish anything even if I disagree with the companies decisions. I like Spotify and would like to keep using it because I have found lots of new music through it but it’s a tough spot. Companies take advantage of users that don’t know how to do anything else.
I thought people were already boycotting Spotify?
Man, y’all are weak-willed.
It’s interesting to see the hate for boycotts in the comments, as if boycotts are ineffective. They absolutely are – if they can get DISNEY of all companies to change their tune, they absolutely can work on other companies. Disney is much more diversified and well-funded than Spotify is
The reasons to cancel your spotify subscription won’t stop coming.
PSA: It’s not just Spotify.
"But the recruitment ads have been running on more than one music or streaming platform, with fans flagging concerns with the ads on Hulu, Max, YouTube, and Pandora, over the past six months. "
"In August, DHS confirmed to The Independent that it would be running advertisements on YouTube, Max, Amazon Prime Video, X, LinkedIn, and other internet platforms. "
“Similarly, Spanish-language channels such as Univision and Telemundo have also run ads featuring Kristi Noem urging “illegal aliens” not to come into the country. “Join the mission to protect America with bonuses up to $50,000 and generous benefits. Apply now join.ice.gov and fulfill your mission,” says one ad.”
Amazon video and X would be surprising NOT to see on the list.
Are these the same users that that vowed to boycott Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Substack? Or are these the same users that vowed to boycott when Spotify started banking Joe Rogan and other rightwingers?
I’ve stopped using all of the above years ago, I’m no hypocrite, but I also know the number of people who will drop Spotify over this are a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of its massive user base. Nothing will ever change when it comes to big social media/tech companies like this because too many people don’t actually care.
People care, but seemingly not enough to actually follow through and drop their subscriptions.
You have to be willing to cause yourself some inconvenience in order to do what’s right.
Well fuck. Spotify is going to be the most difficult to let go but there seems to be every reason.
Its such a convenient platform, but such a terrible business. They seem to believe they’re untouchable.
Been self-hosting for months. Rebuilding my music collection has been an ardous but invigorating experience. I have been listening much more music than ever before with Spotify, with a way better user experience. Turns out I missed music.
What’s your tech stack look like for this? I’ve seen some guides on Lemmy here already for it. Always curious to see what other people come up with.
My stack is:
- Remote access: Bare metal Tailscale for the server and clients.
- Mobile music streaming client: Substreamer
- AndroidTV client: Chora
- Streaming server: Navidrome
- Fallback server: Jellyfin
- Collection handler: Lidarr with plugins
- Download handlers: Slskd, deluge
- Container manager: Podman
All services configured in a single rootless podman compose file that runs on a laptop.
Perfect! Thanks!
I moved to Tidal, and out of 10,000 tracks, I lost ~30 of them.
Other than missing the “Magic shuffle” which helps me discover new stuff, its a good enough streaming platform.
I switched to Qobuz about six months ago after also trialling Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music and YT Music. Highly recommended. Their curated playlists are excellent and I can’t believe what a different the higher quality and lossles bitrates makes. They pay artists way more than the other platforms though, remarkably, they’re the only (major) platform to actually publish per-stream figures, even if they’re only averages. Based in France if that matters to you. They only offer paid plans but do have free trials and provide users with a code for a third-party migration service to bring your playlists over.
I hear Tidal is nice.
Tidal is excellent. Spotify only recently allowed lossless streaming, which tidal has been doing for a long time. There are apps you pay like $5 to and transfer your entire library. Which I cancelled same day. After it gets to know your music preferences, the recommendations are daily playlists instead of weekly, and in my opinion they’re much better.
Not to mention they pay the artists the most out of all streamers, which is why I initially changed.
If you weren’t boycotting them when they bought exclusivity with Joe Rogan you’re part of the problem.
Self hosted media server. I don’t get quite as much content but I still have thousands of hours of content … Back to the olden days!
Can I do something like this on a Raspberry Pi?
Something like Syncthing, but for hosting media would be fantastic. No need to deal with opening ports in the router and all those shenanigans. Something that you install and it just works, without any additional software. Is there anything like this?
Navidrome/Airsonic with reverse proxy is best. There are lots of Android and iOS apps that stream music from you server. Rather than a reverse proxy, you could try connecting via tailscale maybe? I think at minimum, this would require your phone to be connected to tailscale whenever you want to listen to music. Not sure if this would work or be practical.
As others suggested, a simple server with a subsonic api is all you need. tailscale on it and your mobile device and you can stream with a handful of open source apps.
I am using a pi to server my music for years but been self hosting my music since google music died - never got on the spotify bandwagon.
A little docker/podman is all you need. I also work on an free android app for this purpose as well that I just posted an update to yesterday.
You can. I started my Jellyfin server on a RPi3. Not great hardware for video streaming, but it will work fine for music. Could also use Navidrome. For local network only, that would be all you need.
To stream your media collection outside your home network, you’ll want to set up either a reverse proxy and set your ISP’s modem to forward the traffic to the reverse proxy, or set up a VPN like Tailscale. Tailscale would be the simpler option most of the time and is more secure for the average self-hoster.
Best I can do is jellyfin with a reverse proxy
Plex, but they’re getting big brothery. They do support relay through their own server.
jellyfin + cloudflare tunnel. Still big brothery, but less, pretty easy and not against their tos
Syncthing only works because it’s bursty. Once you start trying to run sustained data over it, people will run out of capacity pretty quickly.
Something could probably be done DHT/Torrent style. All the listeners share in the transfers, but the availability might be dicey.
For me, it’s Jellyfin + Tailscale. I always connect home and play from my media server and if TS ever gives me any lip, i’ll change over to headscale or just wireguard.
It’s hard to find an ethical player in the media space, especially the streaming space. It’s hard to even agree on what that would look like and how it would work.
Having said that, it’s clear that Spotify isn’t it. From the first time the client paused an ad when I muted my laptop volume I knew the enshittification was coming. I’ve been Spotify free for a few years now, but decline to recommend my current solution because it’s not much better. When I have time again, I’ll be sorting my local music library and physical media.
ICE ads would have sent me over the top. That would be a FAST cancel from me.
It’s hard to find an ethical player in capitalism.
I’ve not used Spotify since they provided Rogan with a platform, ICE ads was the next logical step for that fascist friendly platform.
Already done.
People still using Spotify?
Just canceled and deleted my account. Swore I’d never do that, years ago.
If you’re not gonna start your own media server or don’t know how, tidal is the way to go
YouTube (Google from Google music) showed the same ads, too
Fuck! Now I have to cancel my subscription! This sucks I guess time to set up music on my media server
Good idea. Also give Qobuz a try. I did that and it went very well.
I just tried this today, tested it and then signed up for the free trial.
Then the app just stops responding. Eventually when logging into my account on the site to try and figure out what broke it tells me it cant log me in through a vpn. Even tho it let me create the account and play music through one an hour ago.
Bad enough that it has this restriction (that spotify doesnt) but to make the app just not respond to input is awful.
Vpn is kind if a neccessity in the uk now if you ever want to see imgur so back to spotify :(
Jellyfin and Lidarr is a potent combo for managing and streaming a collection.
What does it look like on the phone/client end, if I’m comparing it to using Spotify? Is there a recommended app?
I never really used Spotify, so I can’t make any direct comparisons, but one thing I can say is that Lidarr and Jellyfin will not help with exploring new music. They’re things you host yourself, so they can only interact with your own collection.
Lidarr manages a music collection and works primarily through a web page. I’ve only personally used it on desktop, so I can’t vouch for the mobile UI. Desktop UI seems good enough, no real complaints. You can use it to do things like index your collection, show what you may be missing, standardize folder structure, file names, and metadata tags, and automate downloads of missing content or upgrades for low quality content through bittorrent or Usenet. There might be third party apps to use it if you prefer, but I’m not aware of any since I never felt the need to look.
Jellyfin streams audio, video, and I think ebooks. It has a web client, too, but it also has official client apps for desktop and mobile. The UI is decent, pretty intuitive, no real complaints, but I feel like it could be improved somehow. Still, it works well, and it doesn’t cause problems. However, Jellyfin has had some security vulnerabilities in the past, so I think it’s recommended you not directly expose it to the internet. So instead of setting up port forwarding on your router, you’d want to use something like a VPN or maybe an SSH tunnel to get into the house from outside. That makes it a bit more technical to set up since you need that extra service to access it safely, but that’s only necessary if you want access from outside the house.
This is the way! I did exactly this (with Plexamp) and I never want to go back.
Removed by mod
Fine, I’ll be that guy - if you’re not already boycotting Spotify for half-a-dozen other reasons, you’re probably not going to for this.
You never know what the final straw will be for any given individual
Welcome warmly anyone who joins the fold – no chastisement, only positive feedback for a positive step.
Exactly. Better late than scared back to the other side…
Plus not everybody sees every news story.
Exactly what I was going to say. With so much shit going on all the time and so many awful companies making even worse decisions, it’s easy to miss what cartoon villain-esque business companies are getting up to at any moment.
Agreed, no chastisement here, just pointing out that it’s a bit ‘preaching to the converted’. Though as someone in this thread considered it a final straw, clearly it was of some use.
It is for me. I’m glad I ran across this article.
I boycott nearly everything else already. I’ve kept Spotify as a little treat even though I’m not a fan of their business practices. But this is it for me. It will be a tough adjustment, but I can’t support companies who support fascism.
Its a line that’s crossed. Podcasts and what not aren’t government. I’m generally ok with the idea that individuals spewing shit from their mouths is one thing.
Taking money from the regime in exchange for helping the regime to clamp down on human rights? That’s crossed a line. Disney learned the hard way and now Spotify will too.
Say what you will about capitalism, but I do deeply appreciate the fact that “learned the hard way” involves purely economic decisions and no actual threats of violence
I don’t remember who said it, but some billionaire equated boycotts with terrorism.
I was subscribed just so my Music Assistant could have my playlists and my kids liked the ease. I’ve exported those lists and just canceled.
I stand corrected.
Absolutely. People are insanely slow.
Also often only leaving a service or similar if it personally affects them negatively, otherwise just seeming angry but literally changing nothing.
You’re wrong actually. I’m unsubscribing as we speak.
Was your reason, like some of the others stated, that it was the nature of the ads?
Yes.
It’s a line that was crossed. Fascist mouthpieces, while yes are very likely funded by regime allies or themselves directly, at least allowed for plausible deniability. Which is something I strongly support - innocent until proved guilty.
An advertisement recruiting for ICE is directly accepting money from the regime for suppressing human rights. There is no plausible deniability. None. Zero. Zilch. Nadda.
Military recruitment ads were different too, as it was supposed to be for the national interest to have a military to respond to INTERNATIONAL threats. (Obviously… That one is changing quicker than I’d like). It’s also usually not directly from the president himself.
But ICE, the FBI and other feds are nothing more than anti-human rights. They always have been, and it’s a very clear line I draw at monetarily supporting.
I’ve been wanting to for a few years now as the service gets worse (where is my playlist radio?) but have been complacent. This is the last thing to push me over my limit. I’ll be transferring my decade-worth of playlists this weekend.
Nahh, all those other reasons are kind of hidden from the average person who doesn’t read music or tech news, most of them probably have no idea that Spotify sucks. I’m sure there’s even people hearing the ad right after witnessing ICE violence firsthand
I fall into this camp. I’ve been using YT Music more than Spotify for a while now and I haven’t paid attention to any controversy since they added Joe’s podcast. “Recruiting for ICE”, however, is one of those things that will spur me to instant action.
.
I mean I’ve been feeling the urge to for awhile now, it’s just a lot of work to move the family to something else. This is renewing my interest in sitting down and spending the time to do it.
You say that, but me moving my family plan over to Qobuz barely even interrupted the album that we were listening to - just waited for the track to end, and then switched services. Much better sound quality, much better curated recommendations, no more supporting fascist arseholes. No time like the present, do it.
Yeah I just have to sit down and move everyone’s playlists over.
I was thinking of re-subscribing, but I am probably not going to now.
does using a modified version that makes them no money count? asking for a friend
It’s better, but they gain something by collecting and selling
youryour friends data.The patch blocks sending analytics. Besides, without anything tied to the account, they’d only get your taste and that’s it. Kinda worthless in my opinion (without the ability to serve you ads)
Is good but is also both illegal and traceable since Spotify definitely knows your IP address. Probably among the riskiest ways to get your streaming on
Yeah but they’ll just ban you. They’re not going to break down your door.
IF they care. I’m not talking about mobile apps here, you control what network requests go through or don’t. I don’t remember anyone getting arrested (or banned) for blocking ads.
edit: for clarity I’m talking about a specific patch on pc compared to modified apps on android
It’s been the most stable way for ages, and at most they’ll just ban the account. Either way I don’t know of anyone getting banned bc of this exact version. Maybe if you chat with spotify support and admit it they’ll care, but I highly doubt it’s illegal to block ad requests (or telemetry), adblock isn’t illegal and it’s no different to that.
Regarding my IP - every website I ever visited already knows it. If you’re not on static IP it’s insanely easy to change, rendering an IP ban useless.
edit: to make it simpler - there is no law that says you have to accept requests from an ad server, just like there is no law forbidding you from blocking them. And breaking ToS isn’t illegal by itself, at least over here.
I wonder how deeply integrated the ads are. Can a PiHole stop them?
Should be able to. Web players + adblock used to be a foolproof solution, I didn’t keep up with it though. I guess they could get some podcast ads and a few banners in.
Love my pinhole but it can’t stop YT ads
Does it count as boycotting if I use the service for free with an ad blocker?
