they're providing zero evidence for this, just unilaterally taking tracks (and entire albums associated with them) down. and notably are doing it to artist just big enough that it's a few bucks, but not so big that their post will go viral and end up in the news cycle, or enough that they would have any feasible legal recourse.
but imagine doing this to hundreds of thousands of artists, that's a lot of "a few bucks" they don't have to pay out. hmm! ๐ค
i am absolutely convinced this is a systematic thing on their end and that it's deliberate. spotify is literally the sheriff from nottingham out here.
these are just the ones i happen to see on my timeline. i'm furious.
(ps. @mwgewehr & @floopy r on here, show them some love if you can, buy their stuff on bandcamp etc, and this is singto conley's bandcamp)
i truly wonder how many people this is affecting and whether a class action lawsuit is feasible. so mad
Fuck Spotify always. Alternatives are at times only slightly better but Spotify I think gets to throw its weight around in a way i donโt see the other services doing quite as much
here's the thing
i am willing to entertain these messages as genuine
but the threat model has changed
in years past, sure, artificial streams might indicate an artist is up to something, there would be little incentive for anyone else to do it
but the year is 2024.
AI companies want all the data they do not have the license to use
and most of them are absolute shit at coding scrapers, resulting in big websites being hit millions of times per minute
and if they pointed the video sludge machine at netflix, they've absolutely pointed the audio sludge machine at spotify - and it makes logical sense that "artists just big enough to show up in search or a playlist somewhere, but not BIG artists" would be predominantly affected by this
the fuck spotify here is for continuing to blame the artist for something that no longer makes sense as their fault
and the AI companies continue making the internet worse in their own way
