There are countless headlines, but in case you missed it here’s one the many.

So, the CEO of Spotify did what every billionaire always does…

This was simply the last straw as Spotify had been providing meager payouts to artists since its inception. Many already left the platform just for this reason, but holding many people like myself back was the cheap student plan ($6/month), the social aspects of features like Spotify Wrapped, and the lack of comprehensive competitor libraries. Mostly the last one. With the new announcement of shithead of CEO, a slew of people swapped over to find exactly what I found out this week: out of the thousands of liked songs on my Spotify account on a handful aren’t available on Qobuz or Tidal.

The game changed and no one was really watching.

The competitor apps and ecosystems have been maturing over the past decade to provide not only comparable libraries, but more importantly a better sonic experience. Tidal made waves with hi-fidelity tracks, where Spotify has always used highly compressed, low-quality recordings. Now, the prices have come down to so it’s competitive in price for a higher quality experience.

My experience with Qobuz

To be honest, this ins’t an in-depth review about which app to choose, but instead adding to the chorus of Spotify defectors. Specifically to make clear that you get a better experience with Qobuz or Tidal. I haven’t felt a compromise so far. I have had three songs that aren’t on Qobuz out of the nearly 1000 I transferred over - which Qobuz has a built-in, free library transfer process that was quick and easy. It took minutes to sign-up, transfer my library and start listening. I did have to install a separate podcast app (AntennaPod), but it’s Free and Open Source (FOSS), so I don’t mind the separation.

One flaw for some will be the algorithmic curation, which was hit or miss at best with Spotify. While Qobuz doesn’t have a robust recommender, it does have seamless integration with , which many review as superior to Spotify’s algorithms.

While the simple fact that Qobuz provides essentially the same experience and library as Spotify was enough to justify switching - especially in light of the recent political situation, I actually can tell the listening experience is better. Like a lot better! I listen to songs that I thought were lo-fidelity for an effect, but have grown a new appreciation for bands I have been listening to for years. It’s brought new life to my music listening.

The Final Word

In the end, I have a noticeably higher quality listening experience at the same price (if I was paying for Spotify solo and not the student account) all while supporting an app that is less globally problematic and gives more money to the artists whose music you are streaming.

It’s an easy win-win, so just do it already.

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