Oh Spotify, All Is Forgiven

Neil Young put his catalog back on Spotify. He was moved to do so by the fact that Apple and Amazon are now serving the podcast he objected to (The Joe Rogan Experience) and that led him to remove his music from the streaming service. He reasons that he can't remove his music from all of those services, so apparently the next best thing is to make it available on all of them. As befits Young, he does advocate for Spotify updating its offering to include hi-res, something that most music streaming services are now doing.

Young concludes his post by stating his hope that Spotify “will turn to Hi Res as the answer and serve all the music to everyone. Spotify, you can do it! Really be #1 in all ways. You have the music and listeners!!!! Start with a limited Hi res tier and build from there!”

Young doesn't address that Spotify is now paying Rogan more than ever to shoot the breeze with his guests, while paying artists less than ever for their music.

Chris Welch from The Verge cancelled his Spotify subscription after waiting for years for the company to offer hi-res.

But I’m also an audio nerd who owns a handful of very nice headphones and earbuds. And sometimes I just want to plug in my USB-C dongle, lay on the couch, and truly sink into a new album. And it’s those moments where I’m inevitably disappointed with Spotify, because I know what I’m hearing isn’t the best it can be. I’m paying for an objectively inferior listening experience. Well, I was. A couple months ago, I got tired of waiting, so I let my longtime Spotify subscription lapse and purchased a year’s worth of Apple Music.

I much prefer my Roon + Qobuz setup to Apple Music, but I can see Apple's offering as the next logical step when moving from Spotify to get higher quality music.

Spotify HiFi is still MIA after three years, and now so is my subscription

Will 2024 be the year Spotify starts caring about audio quality?

The Verge

The Verge also has a guide to Spotify alternatives.