Why I am walking away from streaming and recommendations

I am switching over to self-hosting for my media streaming needs. Something is in the air.

Reasons I am moving away from Spotify:

• My music matters to me and I don’t like that it can all just change. Not owning the files has big downsides when artists leave the platform or if Spotify decides they don’t get enough money per stream and make it harder to surface that music.
• I feel like I am swimming upstream to listen to my music. Spotify clearly has some opinions about what I should be listening to and it kills me - I know what my favorite music is.
• Spotify is a surveillance tool. It logs your behavior and sells it to whoever wants it. This is not a trade we should accept.

Reasons why I will be avoiding streaming platforms:

• Streamers proposition is basically this. For a small subscription fee you can have basically all media available to you at all times instantly and quickly. The downside is you won’t own any of this media, artists will be supported opaquely, you will be spied on, and it can all just change.

Streaming platforms encourage content to always be on, they encourage a hands off approach to media selection (just let the playlist choose), always available and omnipresent. This leads to over-saturation and, by extension, a devaluing of art.

A good rule of thumb is to do the opposite of what the algorithm wants. If the streamers want you to always be listening, want you to succeed your ability and desire to choose your own media, and to follow you everywhere. Maybe it is a good idea to reduce your total hours listening to music, to make when you do even more enjoyable. It is probably also wise to always pick your own music and follow recommendations with a human in the loop, to ensure the human power of curation creeps in. And lastly, maybe there are places where music, TV, and podcasts are not available to you, just more reason to really savor the opportunity to listen to music.