Fed up with AI-generated content on Spotify

wim · January 29

Broken business model aside, I like Spotify. I've discovered many artists I wouldn't have otherwise found, just from their recommendation algorithms.

But more recently, when listening to GJ artists especially, it auto-plays some related content (I won't call it music) that is not a real artist but some auto-generated garbage. This stuff ranges from mediocre to abysmal. It's really ruining the platform.

I'm asking in desperation if anyone here has found a way to ban all AI-generated content from your Spotify account, or has some other method to mitigate this problem, please share your solution! I have been searching and haven't found a working method. You can ban these accounts one-by-one as they come up, but there seems to be a never-ending supply of them.

(if anyone hasn't heard what I'm talking about here is a randomly selected example https://open.spotify.com/album/5D0EYZIaADj5WAYtvzyOxQ)

billyshakes · January 29

Sounds like my playing. 😂 I generally eschew all algorithm stuff and just go for what I wanted to listen to. Guess that means I miss out on finding new, but it means I also haven't shared your experience here. Since I spent the better part of 3+ decades acquiring a great music collection, I never subscribed to Spotify b/c I couldn't see paying again for something that I already own. I do, however, like it when I can buy a physical copy (a la Amazon's old AutoRip or Bandcamp) so I can stream in my car but still have the disc.

Sorry there is a lot of trash like this...I probably just invited it into my account by listening, but oh well. I'm betting the Whac-a-mole approach would be unsustainable over the long run.

Buco · January 29

As far as auto-play related content, you can disable that. It's somewhere in settings, I'll look for it and take a screenshot... it's in account>settings>playback>autoplay

JasonS · January 29

There wouldn't really be a way to ban AI generated content because there is nothing distinguishing the content as AI. Now that it has infected Spotify there is no way to get rid of it.

I've been reasonably happy with Amazon Music but I really only listen to full albums, I never do playlists unless I've made them.

DoubleWhisky · January 29

Same with Youtube, and those channels even do have plenty of subscribers. I really do hope those are bots, otherwise it makes me really sad that people seem to willingly listen to "make a gj jazz song" prompts and be satisfied enough when they could listen to "real" music instead.

Thought about switching to Tidal or Quobuz anyway, does someone here know which one does have the better swing music cataloque and if they don't have AI infection?

littlemark · January 29

Better I don't know, but Stephane Wrembel endorses Quobuz. I had a tidal account and was pleased with the Fappy recordings.

adrian · January 30

Qobuz is much better than Spotify. I've used it for 3 or 4 years now and haven't looked back. CD-quality streaming, plus there's no AI-generated nonsense. The selection is very good, especially for jazz.

Intangibly, it gives the feeling of going to an indie coffee shop instead of Starbucks.

If there's music that I really like (i.e., plan to listen to more than a handful of times), I'll buy the digital files. Most of my listening hence happens in iTunes on my computer. But Qobuz is great for exploration.

Adrian

lux · January 30

Add the fact that the AI songs entire intent is to further reduce the pittance Spotify already pays legit artists, well then, fuck ‘em.

paulmcevoy75 · January 30

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/119755#Comment_119755

Yeah I believe a lot of the super crap on Spotify is Spotify generated to draw people from listening to real music.

Pretty soon we will be eating Spotify generated food that's actually not food.

I started doing a thing that's been super helpful for my listening. I make a google doc with albums I want to listen to each month (like 15) and the links (I use YouTube music). So instead of staring at the app and the suggestions and flipping between things, I go to my doc and click the link. The goal is to listen to the whole album at least one time. It really has changed my listening. For a long time the streaming thing really made my musical ADHD bad and I would be skipping around a lot. But now I'm enjoying music a lot more.

Youtube music is the worst for paying artists though. I'll check out Qobuz.