this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (11 children)

What are the Spotify alternatives people recommend?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I jumped to Tidal many years ago because Spotify could not be bothered to provide high quality output. Yes, you can ear the difference, even on shitty gear.

For the stuff I could not get on either platform I started buying CDs on Discogs and ripping them to FLAC.

Edit: ear, not eat.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

Apple music believe it or not. Nice selection and interface. Works on Apple devices as well as android. Has a high bitrate and supports aptx on android. Don't think they have a native app for windows or Linux, though, so you'd have to use the web version.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

This is where I'd have recommended deezer, but they shit the bed on their mobile app.

+1 for tidal

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Qobuz is great. It's a french company, they pay the artists well and the music is in high quality

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If you're technically inclined, self-host navidrome or jellyfin.

If you just want music and don't care about the streaming part, bandcamp (although it does have some basic streaming I believe.

If you want streaming and aren't technically inclined, Tidal.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Tidal is cheaper and better quality, Deezer is good, too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have been using Deezer because it was local for me, France. At the beginning you could upload your own collection to share with others, it was fun. Now it's basically the same as the others, I think it pays artists a little bit more than Spotify. Also just learned that it is now majorly owned by some US investment fund. 🫠 At least it's not directly funding terminators yet?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Napster, bearshare

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

IIRC Tidal and Qobuz should be good alternatives

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Thanks.

I was talking to my wife this morning about this thread and the Qobuz recommendation was just what she needed to replace and cancel Spotify. She was able to import her playlists from her Spotify account and she's been commenting for the past couple hours about how much better the audio quality is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Qoobuz had the most horrific app I've ever experienced.

Couldn't even search a song in a playlist bad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

searching in a playlist in qobuz

I feel it's been getting better. Like, it isn't perfectly smooth, but I like what I get on the Frontpage way more than what I did with Spotify.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, I feel qobuz has the right mentality and ethos to really break into the scene and disrupt.

I loved everything about the experience, but the app was shockingly bad. Like, if it just behaved as gen 1 iTunes it would have been an improvement. Really bad at just the basic things. Just bad. And I cannot stress that enough lol.

I'll keep an eye on them, but whoo-boy! I've never been scared off from an app so quickly

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

This is kinda funny to me because I was using Apple Music before, and I honestly feel it's less jank.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I will say I'm still rocking my samsung a71 so, maybe the tech just want up to it... but that experience was bad. Glad it works for you though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

If might also just be a testament to how jank Apple Music on Android can be. Anyway, I just hope you find a solution that works well for you.