Already using Spotify to pirate music.
Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK
Submitted 2 months ago by QuantumSpecter@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
fittedsyllabi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Psythik@lemmy.world 2 months ago
ReVanced? Or a Spotify downloader?
fittedsyllabi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Just a web-based downloader, I’m patient and simple:p
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Zotify
dinckelman@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If something’s finally going to force the industry to curb its bullshit, this might just be it. Once you annoy normal people, it’s all over. They seriously underestimate how many people would just stop using Spotify, or Youtube, or whatever other platform it is
phonics@lemmy.world 2 months ago
While I want to agree. I feel like normal people are still not gonna give a shit.
Balaquina@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
They won’t give a shit, but they’re also lazy and won’t bother setting up an account that requires ID and photo verification. Too much work. Maybe we’ll even see somewhat of a recurrence of brick and mortar stores that sells music, movies, porn, etc.
Iteria@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Every company has learned that any friction to using your site is a bleed of customers. There are a lot of people who will just not use your site if it requires a lengthy validation process. If there was some kind of identity system that sites would integrate with like login.gov, then people would ignore this, but I don’t think the UK has such a thing that every site can use, so a lot of people will not use the site and over time fall to piracy or illegitimate sites.
WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 2 months ago
People underestimate that most “regular” people are a product and exist for something other than humanity.
blargh513@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
It would have to get pretty bad before people would be willing to forgo convenience.
That stuff is a nasty drug, very addictive and people will sell everything they got to keep it. They’d rather pay and arm and a leg instead of learning a little technology so they could help themselves.
People will slave themselves to the company that lets them be the most ignorant person possible but still enjoy the fun of technology.
Could you imagine if all mobile devices stopped using face recognition to unlock phones? I’d be willing to bet that a big chunk of people wouldn’t be able to use them at all. I’m surprised that google and apple haven’t started charging extra for that.
blitzen@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
“Normal” people would put in their child’s social security number if it meant $2.99 off their subscription.
DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m not convinced. Look at how Netflix made bank on killing off “sharing is caring.”
People are lazy, and if they want their easy Spotify fix, I fear they’ll hand over their information and move on with their day.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
They will be blown away by the quality increase they get🤭
(Pirate tend to share/prefere best quality content, while Spotify offers only 256kbit mp3 as far as I remember (or is it 320kbi now?))
moody@lemmings.world 2 months ago
Most people can’t tell the difference between 128 kbit MP3 and high quality recordings.
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
most people
Many people are ok with hearing music out of a phone speaker. Audiophiles don’t necessarily care about how “most people” perceive sound quality.
Waffle@infosec.pub 2 months ago
Idk man. Show someone some cymbals on a 128kbps track and it sounds like someone crumpling a plastic bag via a tin can connected to a string. In contrast flac is going to sound much more natural.
I’d agree with you regarding 320 and flac - most people are gonna have a hard time differentiating.
SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 2 months ago
i didn’t care about just grabbing the 720p 600mb video file back when i was watching on a little laptop screen.
it does not hold up on the big stuff.
kinda same applies to audio?
crap sounds like crap on a phone speaker, but so does hi quality stuff.
noise and low dynamics are more noticeable on more powerful, louder gear.
just spitballing here, not an expert!
Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Can’t confirm, I can’t tell.
vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
How about 48 kbit MP3? And more than that, for plenty of recordings that’s sufficient.
dunz@feddit.nu 2 months ago
Spotify uses vorbis if I’m not mistaken, not mp3. Mp3 sounds like absolute ass, even at 320.
jsomae@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
There are fans of Spotify?
thatradomguy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s their silly little way of saying conned subscription holders.
btaf45@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I could tell Spotify was trash when I first heard about it. That Spotify decided to enshitify their already bad site makes it even worse.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m just as mystified as you.
The only time I interact with the service is when I’m sent a link to a cool band/song and I wind up on the site. “Oh, this again.” I really have zero concept of fandom for something like this.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol 2 months ago
Bandcamp, Soulseek, Navidrome, ListenBrainz.
Has been a pretty solid Spotify-replacement stack.
DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 2 months ago
One more reason if you’re still buying music, to start buying physical albums again while you still can.
CDs aren’t age-gated and you can rip them to FLAC yourself.
percent@infosec.pub 2 months ago
+1 for vinyl. The album art, inserts, etc. really adds something to the experience that I had long forgotten over the years of downloading and streaming music.
DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 2 months ago
CDs still do that to some extent, especially with indie releases, and also higher-end physical formats like SACD and DVD-Audio tend to have a lot of extras packed in with them as they’re typically considered to be special editions of a given album, but both SACD and DVD-Audio are DRM-encumbered unlike normal CDs and of course analog formats where DRM doesn’t apply, so trying to get them on a PC will be harder if not impossible especially as the DSD codec that SACD uses has particularly nasty DRM shipped with it IIRC.
Clbull@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Just a friendly reminder that the OSA was never about safeguarding kids from seeing porn.
Are the government seriously worried about a child being exposed to Break Stuff or So What?
haloduder@thelemmy.club 2 months ago
This is another step closer to requiring an ID to use the internet at all.
JokeDeity@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Personally I could never get into the whole Spotify and Pandora thing. I want to listen to what I want to listen to and when I want to listen to it, without ridiculous restrictions and rules. YouTube has honestly been the far better choice for music for me.
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Having a collection of music in files that I own has been my go-to for years. Currently VLC says I have 701 hours of music in files on my phone. That’s only 29.2 days worth.
ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Man, I had around 10 gigs of vintage mp3s that is created since the days of Limewire/Napster. Uploaded it all to Google Music and lost track of the external I’d had the collection stored on. Whatever, it’s all in the cloud now.
Then it wasn’t.
I really, Really, need to back up all of my Gdocs, just in case that service ceases to be.
(I wonder if ancient crunchy low bitrate mp3s will be an aesthetic, the way that dusty vinyl or worn out tapes are?)
JokeDeity@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I used to do that and I do still have a lot of music from that time on my computer, but somewhere along the line I stopped downloading music and just started listening to it on YouTube whenever I thought of something in particular.
JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s mostly the discovery aspect, it’s easy to find new and emerging artists through these services, and they make playing that music very convenient. YouTube does have some of it with YouTube music but I’ve not found the algorithm to be as good as Spotify or Tidal
_g_be@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I used to use and praise Spotify and their algorithm, but I was starting to find that it would insist on playing the same 20 or 50 songs regardless of the playlist I was trying to generate music suggestions from. I read a rumor somewhere that it was a way to decrease the load on their servers and rely more on the cached songs already on the device, and got sick of that enough to switch to Pandora after over 10 years of Spotify
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Pandora is sadly not available in NL and if I saw it correctly Pandora is also America which does mean that it will turn to shit somewhere in the future.
arararagi@ani.social 2 months ago
You should already be doing that anyways with the phantom artists scandal, thousands of fake artists made with AI so Spotify doesn’t have to pay real people.
JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Spotify fans?
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Tidal is pretty good these days. Qobuz too
Medic8teMe@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Bandcamp is owned by union busters. Only use on Bandcamp Friday for best effect.
jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Tidal is pretty harsh on vpns and my whole network is behind something most of the time :(
rmuk@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I’m having a pretty good time with Qobuz. Their curated collections are actually really good and I’ve found a lot of new stuff in there; it’s not the “here’s what the record label is shoveling this week” like on Spotify. Also, the high bitrate stuff… I hate to admit it, but it really does sound better.
Allemaniac@lemmy.world 2 months ago
do they have a lot of german music too, or are they focused on american / french music?
Sterling@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
We switched to Deezer about a month ago and are liking it. Flow seems to find music I like way better than Spotify’s DJ or “for you” playlists.
billwashere@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m confused. Is every app in the UK requiring face scanning? I thought it was just adult content.
eagris@lemmy.world 2 months ago
According to the article :
However, the platform does have certain features that are aimed at mature users. In Spotify’s case, you may be asked to verify your age if you try to “access some Spotify content and features, like Music videos that are labeled as 18+ by rightsholders”. This could also apply to podcasts that discuss mature content and songs with explicit lyrics.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Bluesky app also seems to require this for some features.
SineNomineAnonymous@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Should never have left it behind to be honest.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
People sometimes don’t believe me when I tell them I’ve literally never used Spotify.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I showed it something else with cheeks and now I’m on 15 watchlists.
MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Welcome back 🏴☠️🦜
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Never understood Spotifys appeal. Youtube has always been better imo.
Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
The few dumb artists who only release music there and nowhere else, the better streaming quality (I guess? I’ve read it somewhere), and slightly better at suggesting/categorizing music genres. I don’t use it because all the time I’d see people cry “I wish this was on Spotify!!!” in a YT comment section, and YT music had everything I wanted. Plus YT free is way more bearable that Spotify free, and I use ReVanced now anyway.
But yeah Spotify always sucked to me and I’m tired of those who shame others for not using it. The “Apple green bubble shaming” of the music world.
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I’m returning to car boot sales to buy cubic meters of CDs.
That, and BandCamp.tarknassus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
All my CD’s got ripped (and re-ripped) to mp3 in increasing bitrates as storage increased. Bandcamp is where almost all my musicians release anyway, and I’ve got over a thousand albums through them, happy in the knowledge I support the artists in a fairly direct way.
Sure, I’ve still got an Apple Music sub (which sucks at times because licensing means a compilation gets split into several albums when whatever deal happens in the background expires). But I’ll easily find new music, grab it and give it a go, and if I like it enough I’ll dig them out on bandcamp. At some point I’m gonna quit that platform.
Planning to get a modern mp3 player to go offline with my music at some point. Or maybe rebuild the old iPod and put Rockbox on it and hook it up to my linux desktop.
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I found it was well worth ripping to flac securely using EAC (no idea what the modern setup is).
As then I knew I had a perfect copy to make whatever MP3 I wanted in the future from.Nowadays, I convert everything to V0 for portable use, but who knows what the future may hold.
tangycitrus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I have a non-uk account but at the first sight of age verification I will delete my account.
brown_guy45@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
I already moved to piracy for music because these days Spotify isn’t even giving the normal shuffle option for free users
Yeah I know it’s cheap but I’m a student so…
octobob@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Already did this ages ago. Been building a collection for decades now. I’m pushing about 10k albums on the NAS. Haven’t had spotify since like 2018
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Same but I only keep what I really like and listen to, I put playlists on a thumb drive, almost like a cassette player, it just works.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
You have more albums than I have individual files, I don’t even know where I would find so much to download.
I usually just get it from YouTube currently
octobob@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Soulseek
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Do it.
It’s easy. Just use a Youtube-to-MP3 converter.
PagPag@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This is cool if you’re okay with low fidelity music.
After years of lossless and headphones to distinguish, this sounds like fingernails on a chalk board.
It’s akin to using a tape deck to aux adapter in an old car or recording a tape off of an old boombox radio lol. I’d rather listen to nothing.
haloduder@thelemmy.club 2 months ago
You can download FLACs using Nicotine+.
wabasso@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I believe you so this is a genuine question: did you ever test your kbps threshold for being able to distinguish from lossless?
I remember in the MP3 and Winamp days, I was convinced I could detect anything below 192 kbps. Obviously depends on the content, and I’m implying 44 kHz minimum.
StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 2 months ago
…return? LOL
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
Bring it on! Sail the high seas. Yargh!
Epzillon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Im not even in the UK and im still going to cancel due to this. Thanks spotify, fuck you :)
percent@infosec.pub 2 months ago
Well I don’t think Spotify wants to do it, but it’s probably a better option than abandoning their UK users.
I assume the other streaming options will do the same in the UK market, so probably better to look at self-hosted alternatives, if you’re into that
balder1991@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What are they supposed to do? Pull away from the UK?
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Latest Spotify crackdowns on revanced apps and a very recent GrayJay plugin issues made me look into Spotify cracking scene. I found an app that works. But for how long?
nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
just buy releases from bands on Bandcamp
TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
I just use spot-dl to download my music…
omniman@piefed.zip 2 months ago
Spotify was shit anyway use yt music
gerowen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Buy and store your own music. HDTracks and 7Digital both sell high quality DRM free downloads, or you can just swing by your local Walmart or Dollar Store and grab some CDs to rip.
Or you could go sailing, that’s always an option…
goatmeal@midwest.social 2 months ago
Libraries can have pretty good CD collections too
filcuk@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
As much as I’d like to do that, I have listened to over 7000 artists on Spotify.
I simply don’t have the time (or money) to look those up individually.
So I can either choose to have worse experience, or stick with Spotify for now.
gerowen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There is a cost to convenience ratio. Each individual has to decide based on their own ethics and preferences whether they’re willing to sacrifice their own personal experience for the right of ownership. I personally chose to cancel my Spotify subscription some time ago and start buying digital downloads and CDs again.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Is there rippers for Spotify?
gerowen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That I don’t know. I mean you could always just use something to record the sound played by your PC, but at that point A) You’re not getting as good of quality as you would from an actual download of the source material and you’d have to manually assign metadata, make sure no notifications or other sounds played, make sure your recording settings were optimum, etc. It’s easier, right now at least, to just buy what you want on CD or from a store that sells digital downloads legitimately.