"We" would require that all of us listen to Spotify, which we don't. The best of us chooses our music ourselves and the source that provides it. Thank you.
The "radio" is owned my Clear Channel. They play what is best for their shareholders, not listeners. It's not better, sadly, not like when we were kids. That said, payola was a real thing with real consequences on what we heard and when.
Not defending Spotify at all, but if you are an engaged music listener you don't have to fall victim to the algorithms at all. I use blogs and websites to find new music I wind up loving and ignore the "if you listened to this you'll like this" or "try this playlist." Just ignore the algorithms!
NYorker article mentions that iPods were intro'd same year as Spotify. I just charged my 5th gen 2006 iPod and listened to songs from 2006. So cool! My 1st gen shuffle still works, too. Batteries don't hold charge long, but yeah!
As an indie singer/songwriter, I appreciate this article highlighting the outrageous problems w Spotify. But I was disappointed w the breezy dismissal of other platforms. Tidal pays artists a lot more, the sound quality is better & they have all the music you want to hear without the Spotify dreck.
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But at the end of the day all streaming services will not provide an algorithm to benefit their users but for their own monetization