Boycott Spotify, but can you replace it? Are Apple Music, FreeYourMusic alternatives?
When Neil Young launched his boycott of Spotify over its hosting of popular podcaster Joe Rogan, whom the rocker accused of spreading Covid misinformation, the Polish startup FreeYourMusic sprang into action. It tweeted the hashtags #cancelspotify and #byespotify to draw attention to its main product — the free transfer of music playlists from one platform to another. Opportunistic? Sure. But also a reminder of the swirl of issues facing Spotify as it’s dragged into territory commonly associated with Big Tech, such as platform dominance.
Even if the main thrust of Young’s standoff was about Spotify taking responsibility for the content produced by its burgeoning podcast empire — the company has since announced some welcome changes — the question of whether there are enough viable alternatives to Spotify is never far away, as Kara Swisher recently mused.
With approximately 380 million users and a 31% share of the music-streaming market, ahead of Apple Music’s 15%, Spotify isn’t quite Facebook (the social-networking giant has 3 billion users). But the platform is big, and the network effects of its music catalog — now augmented by podcasts — are incredibly powerful. The days when fans were forced to find the Beatles or Metallica on CDs or downloaded files are long gone. Spotify’s deep well of content, combined with gobs of consumer data, papers our lives with playlists. Its algorithm reigns supreme.
There are rival platforms out there, but the switching costs feel high. Deleting a Spotify account, signing up to another platform and painstakingly rebuilding a new algorithmic cage is a chore. Third-party apps promising an easier time don’t help that much — I tried using both FreeYourMusic and vto export playlists to YouTube and
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