That’s my biggest problem with Spotify. When I was younger I’d always have music playing in the background but now I only listen to music intentionally – mostl

That’s my biggest problem with Spotify. When I was younger I’d always have music playing in the background but now I only listen to music intentionally – mostly when I’m walking in town or on public transport. I usually download a select number of albums in advance and listen to complete albums at a time – just as I did with other media. Ideally, my monthly Spotify spend would be divided among the few artists that I actually listen to. Instead, the (small) share of revenue that the artist gets is their fractional share of what everyone else is listening to (most likely as background† music, selected by a Spotify algorithm or playlist), i.e., it’s not proportional to the amount of times that I listen to the artist. † I’d often hear good music being played in a small (usually independent, not a chain) store or café where the workers have some control over what they’re listening to in their work-place. In the past, I used to discover new music and have some good conversations by asking staff in a shop what is the music they’re playing on the sound system. For the past few years, that hasn’t worked so well: the staff stare blankly, are surprised at the question and/or show no interest in what’s being fed to them by Spotify.