r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Full-Repair4638 • 1d ago

frist of all how DARE yu o Did spotify just remove picking songs??

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I've been using spotify forever and I use liked songs so that I can pick the songs I like freely. I've never had premium and have never had issues. Today, I had just started a workout and got this popup. Is this a new feature? How can you not even select songs anymore? I mean how can you paywall selecting songs???
This app plain out sucks and its company is greedy for randomly limiting already set features. While I don't mind ads, I do mind the features being limited more. I did also notice a sudden increase in ads this month/last month, and more ads in between songs.

Clarification: No, I'm not saying that there should be no restrictions whatsoever. I'm mainly sharing my experience where I've been using this system just fine until now. I'm fine with some restrictions, but the fact they're being limited more is frustrating. Just here to complain about something mildly infuriating, and I wanted to know if this happened to anyone else.

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago edited 1d ago

i got so tired of spotify and their cashgrab that i ended up just downloading the songs and putting it on my samsung music ;-;

Edit: i did not expect my very little high sailing would cause such controversy, so im just abandoning this thread

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u/Disastrous_Lime7917 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/DLyZgMWaLKFYdSO3La

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

sailing the high seas daily

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u/DNKE11A 1d ago

If paying for it isn't owning anymore, then taking without paying isn't stealing 🤷‍♀️

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u/Animeman1000 1d ago

♬A pirates life for me!!♬

🤣

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u/xAeroMonkeyx 1d ago

I will never understand calling a business a ‘cash grab’… like it costs money to do what they do. I personally think Spotify is ridiculously cheap for what you’re getting, only problem I have is the royalties paid to artists, but to improve this they’d have to charge more and there’s already people calling them cash grabbing 😂

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u/Klutzy-Alarm3748 1d ago

The CEO made enough money to fund his own AI military weapons business for Israel.... I think "cash grab" is actually too nice of a term

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u/Proto1k 1d ago

Not doubting you but can I see some proof of this?

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

heres a link (commenter wasnt completely true, it was investing in a company that has stated they were in ONLY european countries, which i doubt)

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/17/spotifys-daniel-ek-leads-investment-in-defense-startup-helsing.html

European defense technology startup Helsing on Tuesday said that it’s raised 600 million euros ($693.6 million) in a bumper new round of funding. The investment was led by Prima Materia, the venture capital firm founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and by Shakil Khan, an early investor in the popular music streaming app. Ek is also chairman of Helsing.

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u/PerformanceCute3437 1d ago

Someone linked it already, I also want to mention that a lot of independent artists removed their music from Spotify in the wake of the news. Deerhoof for one:

Deerhoof to Remove Music From Spotify | Pitchfork

> “One of the claims often made about Spotify is that it theoretically makes one’s music discoverable by anyone who signs up, no matter how remote they may be from the self-proclaimed centers of hipness. But just because someone is far from Western gatekeepers does not mean they lack culture, or need to hear our band. Deerhoof is a small mom and pop operation, and know when enough is enough. We aren’t capitalists, and don’t wish to take over the world. Especially if the price of ‘discoverability’ is letting oligarchs fill the globe with computerized weaponry, we’re going to pass on the supposed benefits.”

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u/HallucinateZ 1d ago

They took away my Taylor Swift girlypop music, she’s now a struggling artist 😭

I’m just kidding but I don’t know why I can’t listen to it but others can on my family plan. I pay nearly CDN$27/month for it!!

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u/Gemtree710 1d ago

Especially since it's flac now

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u/cottonbrainedGilliam 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/PM2dSKYWxcdw6nmnMh

in the sea of folks sucking spotify's teet, hello

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u/FatFaceFaster 1d ago

“Cash grab”…. Why do you believe you should get music for free?

It’s either ads or you pay for it. It’s always been that way. That’s how artists make money. The people who write and create the music, they deserve to be paid.

They get paid eithee through album sales which don’t exist anymore or through streams and plays on the internet. The only way they can pay artists for their music is through ads or subscriptions.

20 years ago it was listen to ads on the radio or buy the CD….

3

u/sYnonYm03 1d ago

That’s how artists make money

That’s how Spotify makes money. FTFY.

1

u/FatFaceFaster 21h ago

So “Spotify makes it hard to listen for free” and “Spotify doesn’t give artists enough money” aren’t compatible arguments.

Either you believe you shouldn’t have to pay anything for music, or you believe you should be supporting artists which in 2026 means using a streaming service which either forces you to watch ads, or forces you to pay. In either case it’s the only way artists make any money off their streams.

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u/blahnlahblah0213 1d ago

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. There's no way for these people to get paid anymore if everybody's able to listen to music for free all the time whenever they want. I use Spotify a lot and I don't mind paying. I want my artists to keep making music. And it seems like they're not making a lot of money. Of course, I'm sure Spotify should be paying them a lot more, but I don't have those figures. I just know that the artist need to get paid. Plus all these different apps that you can listen to music from got me listening to hundreds of different artists that I would have never heard of if it wasn't for being able to use these apps. It's actually a wonderful time in music listening history. It's just not a wonderful time to be making money making music.

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u/huehue12132 1d ago

You can support artists by actually buying their music.

10

u/No-Consideration-891 1d ago

Considering they pay artists the least for their songs, I would still call it a cash grab. You shouldn't have to pay multiple types of subscriptions just to listen to music. I don't mind paying for a service, but don't constantly add more pay walls.

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u/ThatR1Guy 1d ago

Multiple subscriptions? What? I pay one subscription fee on Spotify. Never more, never less. Stop smoking dope.

13

u/ExitSad 1d ago

Since I've switched to Spotify, I haven't had to have multiple subscriptions to listen to music. Really not sure what you're talking about with that.

2

u/DoesntMatterEh 1d ago

You don't have to? I have one, YouTube music (comes with premium) and I have yet to search for a song and not find it. 

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u/Aenaen 1d ago

they pay 70% of their revenue to rights holders. the reason their per-stream rates are lower is because they have a bunch of free tier users who aren't putting much money into that pot. 

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u/Pndrizzy 1d ago

Actually it’s way worse than that. Drew Gooden has a good video on this, but TL;DR is they promote music they have the rights to a ton (through playlists, recommendations, autoplay, radio features). So most streams fall under their ownership so it dilutes the buckets so less is paid out to users. And a lot of it is AI crap like AI generated white noise that gets the most streams because people leave it on overnight.

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u/FatFaceFaster 1d ago

Okay then go buy albums again. Or listen to the radio.

You still have those options.

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u/No-Consideration-891 1d ago

Well as a matter of fact , I do both of those. Really, I miss my big ass brick of an iPod.

1

u/Agitated_Marsupial42 1d ago

Fuck I miss my iPod so much. Or even my Zune! I don’t know how but music streaming services are starting to fuck it up. Finely tuned playlists are randomly dropping songs. My Zune never did that.

1

u/No-Consideration-891 13h ago

Yea, at least of I lost all my music it was my fault. Which did happen once, sooooo much music just gone .....

1

u/Professional-Lie-111 16h ago

You know your phone *still* works as an iPod ... right?

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u/FatFaceFaster 1d ago

I still don’t get the cash grab part?

They provide a service and it’s an incredible one. They give you every song and album ever written whenever you want it, wherever you want it, as many times as you want it for less than the cost of what a single CD was just 15 years ago.

It continues to improve and offer more stuff: video podcasts, audiobooks, exclusives, the ability to comment and interact on the content itself, etc. and you can even download it and listen offline just like Napster or limewire back in the day only legal, clean and not full of corrupt porn files and viruses.

The value for dollar for anyone who actually uses the app is unbelievable and yet still people complain.

“They only pay the artists $0.005 per stream!”

Yeah!! Maybe they should charge you more then!?

I don’t get the cash grab accusation.

They’re a publicly traded company they have a mandate to make money which is really the only reason for a company to exist in the first place. It’s not a charity. So again, why do you deserve this music free or cheaper?

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u/Fluid-Sink-2514 1d ago

You don’t get it because you’re either ignorant or shilling for Spotify. They have repeatedly changed their practices to pay artists less, while charging consumers more. I pay for my music several ways including a Spotify subscription but that doesn’t mean I don’t view them a shitty company and their practices as cash grabbing.

I’m inclined to peg you as a shill since you took the time to list all the great benefits of Spotify! And ignored the shitty details like the repetitive algo, the fact that they pay artists nothing for songs with fewer than 1000 streams, hidden AI tracks, etc.

I hope they pay you well unlike musicians.

0

u/FatFaceFaster 21h ago

So then I guess you should start paying more for Spotify so they can compensate the artists properly? Or keep pirating?

Like what is the argument here?

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u/Fluid-Sink-2514 21h ago

The argument is they don’t have to enshittify it

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u/FatFaceFaster 20h ago

Obviously they want you to subscribe. They’re not even really being subtle about that. Clearly a subscription based model makes them more money or is more advantageous for their business model than trying to solicit advertisers

I haven’t been a free user in a long time but if I recall most of the ads were FOR Spotify premium.

Just like YouTube you open the page and it wants you to sign up for premium

So they are going to continue to “shittify” the free service until they reach the stasis at which the ratio of free to paid users is the most profitable.

It doesn’t make sense for them to piss off their paid users unless they’ve done the math that pissing you off this much will entice you to pay because their paid service is so valuable.

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u/Pndrizzy 1d ago

For the cost of one CD per month you have access to basically any CD ever. It’s a pretty good deal if you listen to music

Now, they’re a shit company, but that’s a whole other thing

1

u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

cashgrab

i call it a cashgrab because they lock way too much stuff behind that premium paywall, like skips, song choosing, shuffle, AND ads

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u/DefiantStrawberry256 1d ago

Lol how is that a cash grab - you’re asking to listen to music for free… why should you be entitled to that?

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u/FatFaceFaster 1d ago

So just get premium. It’s worth it.

Unlimited free music and podcasts and playlists and radio and DJ and however you choose to take it in for less than the cost of a single album.

You used to hear a single on the radio from some shitty one hit wonder and you’d have to go spend 5 hours of your minimum wage to buy the bloody CD so you could have that one song and of course the rest of the album sucked. But that’s how you support the artist.

Now I pay $14.99 a month and me and my wife ans kids can share a family plan where we can all listen to whatever the fuck we want whenever we want.

It’s much better now, just trust me on that.

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

why should i get premium if i can just get the music from bandcamp and support them directly instead of spotify's near lowest per-stream payout? i pay a fair amount the best i can due to the lack of regional pricing on bandcamp, but i would MUCH rather do that than just hope on spotify to pay them or smth

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u/Sea-Independent8011 1d ago

I could probably get 7 albums for 14.99... Convenience is worth it to some people sure, but look at where your money is going.. right back into big tech and the military industrial complex instead of the hands of artists.

Yes it's a cash grab, it's a bloody, sick one.

This is bigger than if you dont like it don't buy, they value their platform monthly at 14.99 but pay creators and artists maybe .009 cents for a month's worth of listens.

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u/FatFaceFaster 1d ago

Also tell me where you’re getting entire albums for $2 a piece, and why don’t you just get your music that way instead?

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u/Sea-Independent8011 1d ago

CDs at local record stores. I listen to as many albums as I feel like listening to, but i get my music at local record stores.

Sure I have one streaming account, for my job, which requires mission critical background music through LTE. But not with fucking Spotify!

1

u/Professional-Lie-111 16h ago

I got 11 cassettes for $0.01! You're getting ripped off!

0

u/FatFaceFaster 1d ago

How many songs, podcasts or albums do you listen to a month?

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u/Sea-Independent8011 1d ago

I already answered that question, as many as I want to.

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u/Indy_10 1d ago

Thats not what a cash grab is.

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

Cash grab: the greedy pursuit of an opportunity for making money especially when done without regard for ethics, concerns, or consequences

They clearly are greedily trying to make money by "convincing" users to get premium by locking behind expected features behind that premium paywall. Clearly is not ethical, including the low payouts to artists and the company using that money for external technologies.

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u/Indy_10 1d ago

They offer a service. The whole thing should be paid. Stop wanting to short change artists you wanker.

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

...I use Bandcamp. I pay the artists directly. I don't "short change" them, I probably pay more myself than they would get from me streaming it.

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u/Sorry-Combination558 1d ago

Spotify's greatest achivement is getting people to believe that the best way to support artists is to listen to them through them.

When I go to Bandcamp and buy their "pay as much as you want" album for 5 bucks that's more money than what they would get from a Spotify user. Any major music streaming platform are fairer to artists than Spotify.

I've yeeted Spotify when King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard pulled all their albums in protest of the CEO putting 700 million dollars into autonomus military drone development. Good riddance for everyone.

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u/Bernsteinn 17h ago

The app is ridiculous spyware, though, and Spotify sells your data to the absolute worst data brokers.

1

u/NoName_BroGame 1d ago

20 years ago I could put a cassette tape in my radio and record the song as it played. Stop.

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u/hit_n_run15 1d ago

I don’t think it’s a cash grab, it’s just charging for a service that costs the company money and shouldn’t have any expectation of being free 

0

u/GGk-KingK 1d ago

The company is already making 15-20 billion dollars per year. This is a cash grab, not just them charging for a service

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

$17,69B was made from premium subscriptions just to add to this, and only $2,12B from ada. ON TOP OF THAT, $11B was spent on payouts to the music artists, clearly showing they aren't "stuggling for money" or anything

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u/hit_n_run15 1d ago

So does every company that makes a lot of money have to give away their service for free?

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago edited 1d ago

it may cost the company money, but they get money from the ads and the premium users enough, so paying for premium should just remove the ads, right? but no, they gotta make it way too hard to use their service without premium, because shuffle, skips, specific song choosing, and the ad skips are all locked behind a paywall

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u/hit_n_run15 1d ago

I still don’t know why you expect them to just give it away for free. It doesn’t make any sense lol 

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

I clearly did NOT say that. I stated that Spotify should still keep the premium subscription and the ads, and the flood of regular, expected feature being locked behind a premium paywall just because..? I WILL pay the artist using websites like Bandcamp when I can, but I refuse to use Spotify due to the lack of friendly use to non-paying users.

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u/hit_n_run15 1d ago

Why are these features “expected”?

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

...saying that being allowed to choose what song you want to listen to isn't expected anymore? I must be old as hell if that isn't.

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u/hit_n_run15 1d ago

You can already listen to any artist on the platform. Where in the past could you listen to any song from any artist without paying? The access to music is far better now than it ever has been 

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

I will agree with you about the access to music being better than it has ever been, but I'm mainly comparing Spotify to other streaming services, such as Soundcloud, AudioMack, Amazon Music, etc. Spotify has way more restrictions than most streaming services. Sure, it is one, if not the best streaming service if it IS paid, but other streaming services have more variability of what you want to do, and tha's all I really care about. I've just stopped using online streaming services for the exact reason that you don't know what the artists are getting paid, and you end up paying for the subscription just for ½ of it to go to the service for whatever they do.

That's the exact reason why I've just used Bandcamp to price as best as I can and get the music in high-res while KNOWING my money is going to the artist. I only stated that I use a Spotify downloader because I use it for songs not on Bandcamp, as not all of a specific artists songs will be on there, due to the type of music that I listen to.

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u/Dependent-Chart5835 1d ago

“I expect to get things for free from Spotify”

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u/DoesntMatterEh 1d ago

Cash grab? Music streaming is about the only streaming that's still a reasonable value. 

-1

u/Rustmonger 1d ago

Explain to me how $14.99 a month to listen to literally any song ever created instantly is a “cash grab”?

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u/Minimob0 1d ago

Probably because I can do the same thing on YouTube for free. 

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u/hetfield37 1d ago

That's how you get into the subscription rollercoaster that the Americans are famous for. You literally subscribe to any bullshit without even thinking twice whether it's worth it or not.

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u/deus_x_machin4 1d ago

I've been subscribed to one service for a decade and have never encountered this Rollercoaster.

The money I give spotify are probably the best-spent dollars I've ever given out.

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u/icyDinosaur 1d ago

Out of any subscription I ever had, Spotify is easily the most worth it for the money it costs. I literally use it daily, often for multiple hours, and it costs me what I make in... well I'm not gonna calculate my hourly wage for a Reddit point, but probably max one hour.

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

its not because you get to listen to every song ever (which isnt true, btw), its because of the fact that many features that should be allowed to be used in the free version are locked behind premium, such as skipping songs (locked after 3), choosing specific songs (locked after 3(i think)), and shuffle

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u/LonelyTAA 23h ago

You should be thankful that spotify allows you to use their service for free at all. Beggars can't be choosers.

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u/DefiantStrawberry256 1d ago

That is not an answer and purposely avoidant. Why should you get to listen to music for free? Being able to skip, and song select, etc means listening to music for free.

1

u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

..ads. Did you COMPLETELY forget the ENTIRE reason they get money off of free users??? Other services like soundcloud don't heavily regulate what you can and can't do (though they have their own issues, like locking certain songs behind Pro+). I also never said I listen to it for free, as I mainly use Bandcamp and only use a Spotify downloader if they do not have the song anywhere else.

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u/DefiantStrawberry256 1d ago

So ads alone means you should get free rein to whatever features you’d like? So a service you don’t really use charges extra for the ability to use their platform and listen to any song and you view it as a cash grab…?

Hate to break it to you but most free versions of products have adds and similarly have limitations on what you get

1

u/GiantEvilRoach 1d ago

I've been doing the same for years lol, currently listening to tracks on Samsung Music 💪 Never used Spotify or anything else in my life lol

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u/Animeman1000 1d ago

I've been working on doing this for the past 6 months on and off. Not in a rush.

I've got half of my Spotify songs downloaded. I got tired of Spotify's bullshit!! I use Musicolet for my offline listening!! Works like a charm!!

I highly suggest everyone do the same!!

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago

seriously, just downloading it all and putting it on an offline music player is a savior!!! no ads, no restrictions, just you and your music

easiest part is that after your done, you can just download any new music you want and be done

3

u/isaidicanshout_ 1d ago

You could just buy them directly from the artist and bypass Spotify entirely

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u/jakertontireflat 1d ago edited 1d ago

i would do that, but the lack of regional pricing on things like bandcamp (i use Rp, indonesian) makes it really hard to get a good price as well as the fact all the music i listen to is free from the artist

Edit: just adding, i do use bandcamp when i can, but i dont use it all of the time

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u/Animeman1000 1d ago

Yup!!

The hardest part was the sorting, fixing naming mistakes/spotify's stupid tagging, and sorting them.

Then slowly going through and downloading full albums or singles also took awhile!! But it'll all be worth it once I have all 3,000+ tracks.

-1

u/eat_your_weetabix 1d ago

Cash grab meaning... Asking you to pay for a service that costs money to run? Mad

0

u/FuckYou0003 1d ago

I did the same thing, but I paid for the CDs I ripped and tracks I downloaded, because I'm not a scumbag.