Subvert.
Vocana.
Coda.
Even.
Sawtooth.
Crates.
Resonate.
Ampwall.
TheFlow.
Campfire.
These are all alternative music streaming / discovery / sale platforms. I have tabs open for all of them in my browser but I just can't get the energy to sign up and add my catalogue.
All of them promise better artist returns than the big streamers* and / or more ethical operating principles. They often have additional hooks, such as being artist-owned or non-profit.
And the chances are you've probably not heard of most of them and, unless you're a real muso, never looked at any of them.
Tidal.
Qobuz.
Soundcloud.
Deezer.
Apple Music.
These are all established competitors in the streaming space. All giving a better payout to artists than the market leader (by number of listeners) and having the same extensive catalogue. They often provide a better value service for lossless audio as well.
But none of them have managed to really trouble the big, green giant either.
So what gives? Do people not know that Spotify pays out a lower rate to the artists that they follow? Do they not know that they've made some sketchy investments and accepted advertising from ICE in the US? Do they not know that Spotify have been very, very late to the game in flagging and de-monetising AI generated music (and even now are really doing the bare minimum that they can get away with).
Do users know this and not care?
Or is it that they know all this, they do care, but not enough to go through the hassle of switching to a new service? One where their friends aren't users? One where the artist disambiguation isn't good enough to give you a reliable feed of people you want to listen to, not just those with the same name? One with a decent app and player? One that integrates to other platforms for live music?
For me, the problem with all of the alternative platforms I've listed above is that they are solving for the wrong problem. Trying to get artists a better payout rate is lovely. But nobody cares. Trying to run a company more ethically is laudable and we should all be supporting that kind of thing. But we don't.
The end user's life is already stressed and complicated enough. They just want to see the link from their friend with a great new song on it and click play. Anything that gets in the way of that is not going to result in them signing up to yet-another-service, it's going to result in them just clicking close and looking at something else instead.
Because most people don't actually care about music that much. For a lot of people it's just a pleasant background noise that helps provide a vibe. Swap out one track or artist for another and they won't notice. For another big group it's not actually the music that's important, it's the cultural moment that comes with it. A song's meaning isn't intrinsic, it's because it links these people to a certain time and place, with all the emotions that come with it. You can't swap that song out for another, but there's no wider connection to the artist or the rest of their catalogue.
For the people who do care about the music itself, who are fans of the album not just the song, the scene not just the single, then the chances are they're already on an alternative streamer or using Bandcamp already.
For everyone else Spotify (or Youtube with its even lower payout rate) is the best option.
If the general listening public really cared about artist payouts or ethical company management, they'd have already switched.
So we need to stop trying to solve for these problems. If you want people to switch away from Spotify then you have to provide a better user experience. And, unfortunately, 'slightly better' doesn't cut the mustard. In order to break the habit, you'll probably need a triple play of incentives. If you can come up with three ways in which the service is better then you have a chance of shifting users. And it has to be three ways that make a difference to the user. Better artist payouts and ethical management aren't on that list.
Until a company tries to actually address the end user experience, and design a better platform for the casual music fan, then all of these companies will be scraping around for a share of the same niche audience of real music fans. And that's not big enough for any of them to scale into an actual challenger.
*I'm not counting Bandcamp as a streaming platform, because a) it's mostly a sales platform, and b) it's streaming player is crap.
