Cord cutting Spotify
Let’s fix the problem of Spotify making too much money while still keeping access to our music.
If you listened to your favorite artist on Spotify like it was a full-time job, you’d spend 2,087 hours a year streaming their music. With songs averaging 3 minutes, that amounts to ~41,740 streams.
Spotify pays artists as little as $0.0029 per stream, so after all that streaming, your favorite artist would earn just $121.05 USD for a full year of your dedication.
Even at this low payout, Spotify is still making a profit. A standard annual individual Spotify Premium subscription costs $143.88 (excluding taxes).
Breaking Down the Numbers
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 2023 report, the average person listens to 20.7 hours of music per week. Over a year, that adds up to 1,076 hours or roughly 21,520 streams.
- You pay $143.88 per year for Spotify Premium.
- The artist payout for those streams is $64.58 total.
- That means only $0.44 of every dollar you spend actually goes to artists—Spotify keeps the rest.
If this seems fair and reasonable to you, then we’re at an impasse—and you should probably stop reading this blog. But if you think artists deserve better, let’s follow the money.
Spotify’s Declining Artist Payouts
In 2017, Spotify paid artists $0.006 per stream. That meant 1 million US streams generated $6,000 for an artist.
Today, the same number of streams would earn just $4,500.
Spotify’s payouts are now among the lowest in the industry despite it being the largest streaming platform.
Meanwhile, in Stockholm…
Did you know Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has made more money than any musician who has ever lived? After his cash out, Ek has made more money than Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, and Rihanna combined. Source: Snopes
So what is Spotify doing with this subscriber money?
Well, for starters…
In January 2025, Spotify donated $150,000 to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Source: Pitchfork
Considering that Trump is now a convicted felon and currently ineligible to run again, let’s call this what it is: a bribe.
There’s more to this story but we could stop right there at funding fascist regimes and move on to the real question: Why are people still using Spotify?
Why Quitting Spotify Feels Harder Than It Should
Even if you hate what Spotify is doing, you might not be ready to walkaway. I get it. Music isn’t just background noise—it’s deeply connected to mental health. 71% of people say music is important to their well-being.
Your playlists? You’ve spent years curating them. Walking away feels like abandoning something deeply personal and no one can blame you for wanting to enjoy them a little longer.
So let’s start small; let’s fix the problem of Spotify making too much money while still keeping access to our music.
How to Unf*ck Spotify
What is Spotify like for free users?
Spotify’s free tier is intentionally designed to be unbearable. Some people call these anti-features, I call what Spotify does "advertorment". As in to psychologically torture free users, bullying them to pay for the premium version. I endured this torment one week and here's my observations of the free tier Spotify user experience:
- Long, repetitive ads. If all you need is just a bump of Passion Pit - Sleepyhead, three back-to-back 30 second ads doesn't quite feel worth the time it took from your life to sell you a car you can't afford.
- Forced shuffle mode. As a free subscriber, you will never hear an album the way it was intended to be heard. You'll never hear a playlist the way the DJ wanted you to. I don't understand how artists and record companies are okay with this, but I am not.
- Inserted “similar” songs you never asked for. This is a vector of attack for "AI artists" to sling their generated songs to get higher stream counts. Sadly not even paying gets rid of this blight on the industry.
It took me awhile to understand why make the user experience this awful. Then it was clear: make it a pain point a few dollars can solve.
I say don't let them win this way. They want to play games with your mind and pay real artists unlivable wages, hurt our communities I say pay them in kind. Hit them where it counts the most: their wallet.
X marks the spot, or how to stop paying Spotify while keeping premium features
Not all heroes wear capes, some modify Spotify so that it can no longer torture people who cannot afford the new Spotify subscription prices.
This hero put their time and talents into something called SpotX. Using it is as easy as copying and pasting a few lines. It takes about a 1 minute to run and it removes all ads and enables you to hear tracks & albums in their original order again, even on the free tier.
There are two different versions of SpotX, one for Windows and one for MacOS & Linux users who are more comfortable with Bash scripts. Legally, I can't say you should click on these links or search for SpotX. That said I can inform you that the links are right here below if you're curious.
Windows 10/11
MacOS & Linux
Follow your respective operating system installation instructions in README to get started. Spotify will occasionally make breaking changes in their updates that reintroduce ads or anti-features. Just run the latest version of SpotX again, the author usually has a fix within a day or two.
Until next time...
Next time we’ll explore truly walking away from Spotify. There are too many better paying alternatives and self-hosting options for us to ignore.
Until then, feel free to share your stories, suggestions, and criticisms on our Discord. Let’s walkaway from bad tech, together.
