You might remember that saying that goes, “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.” Of course, it’s depressing to think that we’re moving toward that conclusion as relates to Spotify, the most-preferred streaming platform in the world and the entity that’s pretty much completely taken the place of CD, in my music-listening practices, in the last 10 years.
The Google search of “is spotify a profitable company,” anyway, certainly yields some pretty surreal results. The initial, primary field reads, simply: “Spotify is not profitable… The company’s net loss in 2023 was 532 million euros.” It’s certainly baffling as to who would be funding this operation just as it is baffling as to how such an enterprise could exist, in the first place, of a platform offering unlimited streaming of pretty much any musical recording in history for a total of $10/month.
Short of getting into motives and potential hidden figures involved in this bonanza, I’ll just, real quick, highlight some unfortunate developments I’ve noticed of late on the platform. One is just the supreme shi**iness of some of the mixes. There are a lot of bad ones but “Down Rodeo” by Rage against the Machine might just take the cake, on which I literally could not even hear the scratchy-guitar part by Tom Morello, which follows every vocal issue by Zack de la Rocha in the chorus (that is a chorus, right?). In general, the sorts of incessant, steady guitar parts seem to be the biggest apparent challenge, with “White Room” by Cream and some other very important psychedelic rock tunes suffering similar production degradations.
I’m bummed, of course, because in general I really enjoy Spotify and really get a decent amount of enjoyment out of the whole she-bang. That last Jimi Hendrix playlist I made, with the accompanying artists, played I think for about three hours or so in my office, last Saturday, when I was watching the Final Four. You know the bass sound is going to be adequate, anyway, what with the digital interface allowing for infinite remastering tracks on that end — we no longer, apparently, have that mixing difficulty to tend to, anyway.
But another troubling piece I’ve noticed as of late has to do with certain albums just randomly disappearing from the platform, entirely. The two worst examples I’ve recently encountered are Face the Sun by The Entrance Band and Strange Angels by Kristin Hersh, who erstwhile fronted the occult alternative band Throwing Muses (whom I likewise recommend, by the way). These are two records full of bona fide, substantial songwriting that emphasizes emotion, uniqueness and distinction over style, something that theoretically might be missing in an era of what I can only describe as “mandated free music,” if you will. A couple of Internet searches I just did reveal that Face the Sun was released on a different label from the other Entrance Band stuff, but Strange Angels springs from 4AD, just like her next album, Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight, which is indeed available on the streaming platform.
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