Wild guess: Spotify was founded in Europe.

It’s now based in the US, and a lot of its revenue goes to alt-right loonies. Renewing their podcast contracts is why you’re paying more year after year to stream music.

I like Apple Music because they pay artists more, but I might be a little biased as it came with my phone and computer and I have a family plan with others who enjoy it (and yes, they are family).

The true alternative to streaming anything is using Plex (or something like it) to make your own music streamer, buying all your media (that pays artists more than any streaming platform), and streaming it to yourself that way. It is illegal to rip CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays in the US, but technically if you own the media it’s fine to have it, you just can’t have broken the copy protection. Kind of a catch-22. But it costs a lot more as you have to buy everything. If you already have a massive CD collection, it’s not as big a deal.