Key Takeaways
- Spotify lacks high audio quality compared to services like Tidal and Apple Music.
- Online radio offers a more organic way to discover new music beyond Spotify’s recommendations.
- Platforms like Bandcamp and YouTube Music can be better for directly supporting smaller artists.
Spotify is a convenient, popular, and accessible platform, making it the go-to place for me and countless other people for all our music needs. However, it turns out I’m doing myself a huge disservice as a music lover by only listening on Spotify (and you might be, too).
Spotify Does Not Have the Best Audio Quality
Spotify has been my sole method of listening to music and podcasts ever since YouTube started pushing ads more aggressively. When I made the transition to a Spotify-only lifestyle, I appreciated the value and convenience that come with a relatively affordable family plan. I can’t claim to be a true audiophile, though, so it never occurred to me that I wasn’t getting the best audio quality available.
Other services like Apple Music and Tidal boast higher audio quality. Tidal, in particular, is a platform with a specific emphasis on delivering high-fidelity audio. Unlike Spotify, which standardizes all audio at a quality of 320kbps, Tidal empowers artists to control the quality of their audio and deliver it to listeners at up to 192kHz. Whenever you listen to something on Tidal, you even have the option to view the quality of that individual track.
Spotify Is Not the Best Place to Discover Music
Many Spotify users have to dig for less-than-obvious solutions just to keep playlists from ruining their Spotify recommendations. That’s not to say that great discoveries don’t happen on Spotify, but it certainly is easy to become trapped in a loop of hearing the same type of music over and over again. If you want to broaden your horizons or discover niche artists who are flying under the radar even within your favorite genres, you need a solution that is much more organic while still appealing to your unique tastes.
That’s exactly where online radio comes in. Online radio options still exist and remain a great way to discover today’s best tunes organically. There are countless internet radio stations that you can browse with a quick web search. The best radio DJs understand the importance of audio quality, artist diversity, and catering to their chosen niche. Next time you have a craving for a certain vibe, try satisfying it with a matching internet radio station.
Spotify Is Not the Best Way to Support Artists
It doesn’t matter how much you pay for Spotify Premium or how many ads you listen to on the platform–artists will still only make the tiniest fraction of a cent every time you stream one of their tracks. This works out just fine for big-name artists who receive tens of millions of listens every month. If you’re like me, though, you might agree that some of the most interesting creators on Spotify are the ones producing unique sounds in a spare bedroom studio. They deserve more support than what a few hundred listens can provide.
Platforms like Bandcamp are better for directly supporting the artist. This is important if you want to make a difference in a smaller creator’s career. There is also merit in turning to YouTube Music to discover and support niche creators. With YouTube Music, you have the ability to add audio from any YouTube video to your library, making it the best way to listen to every artist you love in one place. Notably, this can include creators who are not able to upload their tracks to a platform like Spotify easily.
Nothing in the foreseeable future will ever completely tear me away from Spotify. Its ubiquitousness makes it highly convenient for sharing a family plan with other Spotify users in your life, and Spotify’s Jam feature remains the best way I’ve found to listen to music with friends remotely. Even so, I’m more than ready to go out of my way to explore other music platforms.
