I think more and more people are waking up, but who doesn’t need some negative, borderline hateful content on a doom metal blog anyway? This is why I boycott Spotify, and why you should consider giving the platform the cold shoulder, too. Trust me, there are plenty of reasons. Let’s dive into them!
About me – deathdoom.com, music and more
- Stefan Nordström
- Musician, songwriter, content creator, digital freelancer
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Bands: Desolator, Soliloquium, Ending Quest, Ashes of Life, Trees of Daymare, The Ashen Tree
- Social: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
- Stay in touch: Newsletter signup
- Support my work on PayPal: 1€ | 2€ | 5€ | 10€
My history with music streaming
Let’s start with my personal history with Spotify and other streaming services. Well, I don’t have one. I’ve never used Spotify in my entire life, other than posting my music and making some playlists to promote my bands back in ancient times. I wish I could say that I was always ideologically driven, but honestly, it’s just a matter of being a technological laggard.
I just didn’t find the whole thing particularly appealing. That gradually switched to being disgusted with Daniel Ek and co’s shady oligarch-like business practices, and the surrounding consequences.
Why I don’t have playlists/promote my music on Spotify
So yeah, playlists! My music was quite successful on YouTube back in the 2010’s, largely thanks to playlisting (158k views for “Catharsis”, something I’ll likely ever see again). I listen to and curate a lot of music, so it’s a natural way for me to combine showing off cool music and including my bands at the same time. People ask me to compile Spotify playlists, and I’d gladly do it, but I don’t want to link to the platform or drive traffic to it more than necessary.
It’s a lost music promotion opportunity for me, but one I’d gladly take the hit from. Spotify is scummy and I’d prefer the listening to happen elsewhere, anywhere.
Business model
The Spotify business model is predatory, and beyond. Market takeover, crummy record label deals, infilitraing with AI slop. To me, it is the enemy of art and expression. If you want to learn more about this stuff I really recommend the book Mood Machine by Liz Pelly. Great read! Expect to be depressed though, but I guess that’s normal territory if you’re a doom metal fan.
$0.003 to $0.005 per stream in a system that is highly rigged, given that labels largely have control over the playlisting that drives the streams. In the early days, I had hopes of influencing this, much like I previously did on YouTube. But those were pre-algorithm days where you could actually use SEO and other hands-on marketing tactics effectively in underground music. Old man yells at cloud, and bla bla: but this is garbage.
The commodification of everything
In my post-laggard phase, I suppose I’ve just become more and more sick of the overall commodification of everything. I’m just not so sure everything needs an app or whatever intermediary is on offer. Much of this just feels like the end of the world to me. Everything doesn’t need an intermediary or a service to skim all the winnings away from those that actually do the work. And in some cases it can also remove the magic.
So, boycott Spotify – what about other streaming services?
So what if we boycott Spotify? Are there any other streaming options out there that do better, and are they really realistic options? I’m sorry for lacking ideas in this part. I think I don’t really have a hopeful part to end the blog post on, but I wanted to make my stand and also explain why I don’t do Spotify playlists.
As a musician and music fan I’ll say this though: buying merch and hitting live shows is crucial, especially when it comes to underground bands. Merch and digital music from Bandcamp has largely been Soliloquium’s income stream, aside from some peanut crumbs from streaming.
Spotify is crummy, and at least I put my 1000-ish words out there on why I think so. I wish I could do more, but hey, rigged world. I hope we could collectively do better in the future, but I’m not sure we can.
Support my music and content
Like most 2025 musicians, I largely play for the fun of it. Same goes for my content. If you want to help me to devote more time to my creative endeavours, please check out the Soliloquium Bandcamp page and buy the digital music or merch. And if you dig it, spread the word about my stuff. Highly appreciated, cheers!
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