How Stupidity Ruined Spotify

[@jackferrythemusician]

Thank you for having me Henry! Just remember, you can stream my music AND YOUR FRIENDS MUSIC wherever you'd like!

[@henryisdumb]

BUT DEFINITELY JACKS MUSIC, STREAM JACKS MUSIC

[@antiherorecords]

you got my vote Mr. Jack!

[@Irisarc1]

I went to listen to some of your music, on YT Music, even though I don't know if that's any better, but at least it's not Spotify. You are so talented. I really enjoyed listening to your music. I would say that I don't understand why you are not more prominent in the music business, but after this video, I have a pretty good idea why. 😒

[@jevinday]

I really liked the song dude! Reminded me a bit of The Strokes

[@Irisarc1]

@jevinday Yeah, it did

[@paultapping9510]

Spotify doesn't have a 'top 5 albums ' section of your wrapped. They are that hostile to the idea of 'albums'.

[@henryisdumb]

it’s almost like they want you loyal to their platform rather than a solitary individuals artistic expression, it’s wild

[@danielsmokesmids]

idk why everyone isnt using last.fm

[@Neimi_Lelnuie]

I am making a list of the albums i listen to and slowly buying them... y'know for when the bubble bursts and spotify disappears.

[@henryisdumb]

this is a great idea

[@AnonymousBadassery]

Thank you agressively british man. I enjoyed learning about Spo-uh-fy, whatever that is. Subbed for more videos, you're 11/10!

[@henryisdumb]

hahahahahahahah god damn that is how i say it

[@henryisdumb]

i need to go drink a bohtle of wa-tah

[@danielsmokesmids]

@@henryisdumbwah-dur 💅

[@undertouch]

had something happen with my music on spotify recently where apparently it was added to one of those AI spam playlists that are botted immensely to make the owners of said playlists seem like they're doing a good job promoting obscure artists, got like 100k plays out of the blue and instead of spotify looking at the playlist to see if there was a strange pattern there they immediately deleted all of my music from the platform and everyone else who was in the playlist. the algorithm part isn't even functioning now because all of my recommended artists (and those artists' recommendeds) are completely randomly selected people from the ai playlists since the bots somehow still count towards our regular listener count even after our music isn't on the platform anymore. i seriously just don't see spotify making it to 2030 at this rate and that's really quite the hearty estimate for my part

[@antiherorecords]

I've been working in the music industry for 7 years now and it is very refreshing to see that non=music industry/musicians are starting to look at Spotify this way and are able to care about this stuff just as much. It is super important. There are a lot of times it feels hopeless reaching a consumer beyond the music, because as I believe your friend stated in regards to AI, people don't care how it was made as long as it sounds good and they can't tell the difference. It's nice to see people giving consideration to what and how they consume their music. It makes all the difference. Merry Christmas to you Henry and a happy new year as well. Also bonus points for the Game Grumps source and citation lol

[@plebmcpleb5761]

People don't care until it affects them, and things are now en-shittified enough that your average consumer is starting to get fed up with it!

[@henryisdumb]

i'm glad you enjoyed it, it baffled me so much every day i spent researching it because i couldn't believe how bad it was at it's core. but it's so infuriating because like what's the alternative? because of it and napster people feel entitled to music now, we're in a big ol' pit. merry christmas and a happy new year to you too

[@antiherorecords]

@@plebmcpleb5761 good! Share your favorite artists content and music and more importantly, buy direct! Buy the mp3 or CD or whatever you can. 1 t-shirt can easily equal 50k+ streams.

[@antiherorecords]

@@henryisdumb hahaha, yeahhhh. tbh tho I loved Limewire/Napster and that was a special time, and imo, a modern Limewire would be preferred to the Spotify stuff now for reasons that are much too elaborate to spill out in a YT comment here. However Spotify's biggest mistake was selling out to the 3 major labels as their stakeholders and investors from the beginning. That was bound to never go well. On top of not turning a profit, my biggest critiques have been all of the things you pointed out, the most prominent being podcasts. Why spend money on podcasts when you can't even sort out how you pay and treat artists? It is infuriating indeed. That and also ruining the discovery/radio feature. Up until 2018 the algorithm has been great, but ever since Discovery mode, which you briefly touched upon, it has gone to shit. It is just payola and just forcing artists to cough up their royalties. It should be a crime against humanity to offer a 30% cut taken by Spotify in order to push and playlist your music more on a royalty rate that is already .0034. I'm ready to flip a table now dude lmao Keep up the good stuff mate!

[@Solanza]

People that use AI to make music are severely creationally handicapped. I have zero respect for such clowns, as I myself could've made the song just as well with an AI, there's no art no effort no soul in this type of creation and I spit at everyone who justifies that atrocious garbage.

[@kerstin3289]

Everytime the Spotify AI wants to make me listen to songs that are NOT in my playlist I am one step closer to listening to CDs again

[@henryisdumb]

or even worse, listening to songs you've removed from your playlist months ago and you get a stress induced flashback

[@kelimofelynx]

roasting spotify is a christmas gift i didn't thought i wanted, let's go!

[@henryisdumb]

that's all i'm here for, i hope you enjoy the rest of it

[@jenniferbooker6728]

Here's hoping more people buy physical music for friends this holiday season over Spotify premium gift cards... great video! Thank you for talking about this!!

[@henryisdumb]

happy holidays! no worries!

[@alisonsoller]

I’ve been strongly contemplating CDs… but my car doesn’t have a CD player. Bring back old cars with old tech. I’m dying to buy a cutesy CD case.

[@henryisdumb]

hahahah luckily my car's dodgy so i still have one, i just need cd's that weren't released when i was in primary school

[@alisonsoller]

@ rumor has it that they’re phasing those ugly screens out of cars to go back to more tactile ones 🙏 nature is healing

[@funtonite]

You can also buy an aftermarket stereo receiver if you really want to play cds

[@Jartran72]

No thank you, they can hold almost no data, scratch easily and can't be easily changed while driving. You can buy a CD player if you want to listen to that. Don't force us to regress. The threat to he polio vaccines are enough for me right now. We don't literally need to reverse progress.

[@wisteriaclaw]

maybe get cds and then rip them to FLAC files? if youre willing to get an external disc drive

[@NequissimusMusic]

So...This is what happens if you have hbomberguy and Tom Scott design a baby? Love your videos. Happy Birthday, Jesus! Happy New Year. Go on, I'll be looking for your content. Which is important because of reasons.

[@henryisdumb]

thats all you need to become this offensively british

[@paintingofacat]

i just got here from your youtube shorts slop video! checked your channel for more and lucky me, you uploaded a minute ago! this is the second video I'm watching of yours and im absolutely captivated! much love from Brazil :]

[@henryisdumb]

thankyou for sticking around! (i hope you enjoy this weird one too)

[@thealmightysnark5878]

Henry hanging out of the window, his face is showing either joy or tremendous fear and I simply cannot tell the difference.

[@henryisdumb]

that's my constant state of being

[@thealmightysnark5878]

@@henryisdumb "The Duality of Henry Lewis" ;)

[@producerbyproxy]

love your content henry, so pumped for an hour upload!!!!

[@henryisdumb]

you may regret that around the 22 minute mark it takes an odd turn

[@joanjobs4359]

Awesome video, a subject that's been nagging me ever since I "discovered" Gutter Grinders and Jet Fuel & Ginger Ales on what I thought were legit Spotify playlists, first thinking these hustling bands had gotten themselves on there somehow, but their bios felt off...so I went down the rabbit hole of all the "Fans Also Like" when I noticed a suspicious pattern of the same foreign cities doing the majority of the listening. Just another pattern of fake cover song artists that are just pitched up or pitched down alterations of the original artists track under different names or in some cases I think are cover versions from Guitar Hero and Rockband.

[@enablechaos6344]

honestly i feel like taking the plunge of goin full bandcamp digital album buyer might be the move for more and more people, especially as YOU KNOW spotify is just going to keep scheming more ways to cut costs and siphon money from creators

[@kerstin3289]

Man, you should listen to "Who the Hell is Edgar" by Teya & Salena, it matches the vibe of the video (and it is also about Spotify!)

[@henryisdumb]

when i get back later i will, i'll let you know how it goes

[@JennaLovesPickles28]

I stopped using Spotify in September for music since I got KZbin Premium and now use KZbin music and I think I like it better. No matter what as long as I have KZbin Premium I’m using their music streaming service because I am not made of money. I still watch some podcasts on Spotify as I NEED my video podcast of Distractible with Mark, Wade, and Bob though.

[@henryisdumb]

legit they're the only podcast i listen to on there, did you get the clip of them in your wrapped? i've been toying getting another service but i don't know which, may look into youtube or apple

[@Irisarc1]

Went to listen to Jack Ferry's music. I'm so impressed, both that he is so good, and that you got him to do this video with you. He's so talented, but so are you, Henry.

[@henryisdumb]

that’s incredibly kind, thank you for that! i’m glad you enjoyed it

[@migoreng7789]

i remember reading an interview with the medially visible ceo where he defended how spotify doesn't pay musicians enough by comparing music to sports and how athletes are paid? dude is out of his mind. idk if spotify is a giant data mining scheme or not, but i know some big corporations operate at loss because it's an accounting choice rather than legitimate being broke... fucked up that now matter what decade we are in, businessmen involved in music business are busy screwing over the people actually making and performing the music :(

[@henryisdumb]

i think we're about to be on the end of them attempting to make money in whatever way they can, it's got to be data from listening habits, like i bet you could tailor adverts based on specific musical styles and artists

[@michaelstevenson5044]

The downloading High school musical and Elephunk onto an.ipod shuffle bit is so relatable that it hurts

[@henryisdumb]

i even found it whilst making this video, it’s still alive and kicking

[@XX-ri1me]

Spotify was recently caught avoiding songs with higher kickback when setting a large list to random playback. The songs with higher royalty payouts were avoided to just keep more money. If they can feed you slop, they will do it.

[@Conicee]

And this is why I dont use Spotify

[@tuckapenguin681]

Heck yeah! New subscriber and loving your style. Please continue to waffle, a joy.

[@henryisdumb]

all i can do is waffle and be british, it’s my two states of being

[@SUGARDECLIPSENails]

Listen, I love the the way you create your videos...😂❤ also the dry humor😂 you crack me up, however the reality and the relevancy makes for really great quality videos in my opinion. Love the editing style as well.

[@henryisdumb]

haahah thankyou for the kind words, hopefully you enjoyed the rest of the video

[@SUGARDECLIPSENails]

@henryisdumb I am still watching and about half way through...and yes still enjoy 😉 I appreciate your work! I def need to take pointers from you bahaha....thanks for the honesty an pointing things out most won't!

[@henryisdumb]

i think it's because i'm stupid that has to be the underlying reason for a lot of my life choices hahah

[@SUGARDECLIPSENails]

@henryisdumb lmao...na your not stupid at all actually! Your funny af 🤣 me personally I like the dry humor like that. Goofiness is always the best when pairing it with real actual data an facts etc..makes for a unique an great video in my opinion. Your not just an AI stupid robot 🙄 just putting retarded brain rot content out and I appreciate that alot!

[@viiranen]

don't tech companies that are worth billions usually have income in the negatives. first cause they are trying to gain industry monopoly, and second, after gaining said monopoly and pumping up the prices to make any money outside of speculation, people leave it in troves?

[@henryisdumb]

yep that's how they all function, operate at a loss until you can jack up the prices

[@malElephant]

this is a neat video! I clicked onto this just after I finished watching one of the ai faceless KZbinr scam course videos, and it has been the best decision I've made all day! (to be fair, all day has been a total of 1h 15mins so far, due to some funky Australian time zones). I love the effort you have put in and I hope you keep enjoying what you're doing!

[@henryisdumb]

god i can't imagine a worse morning listening to me hahahah, hope it's going well so far, i'm happy you enjoyed it though!!

[@malElephant]

@@henryisdumb it is! to be fair, I'm also listening to the Apple Music endless rain sounds in the background which feels very incongruous given the video topic. But the adhd brain must be sated and it only accepts offerings of ambient tracks, lest I hear the sounds of my own thoughts

[@henryisdumb]

yeah i was listening to podcasts on spotify whilst making this so it all felt hypocritical hahahah

[@zerebusgarago]

I'm doing my part, only listen to pirated KZbin music. But I have to say about this, as a consumer Spotify is by far the best streaming platform. If it goes down the same thing as what happened to Video, it's going to explode into 20 different services that will each cost twice as much as Spotify does now.

[@henryisdumb]

i only listen to music through a series of tin cans and strings set up around my neighbourhood, yeah that's the most annoying part the discoverability and ease of use on the platform makes it the best, but the people in charge are absolute donkeys

[@zerebusgarago]

@@henryisdumb I just reread my comment and wow I just kinda didn't type a bunch of words there lol. Sorry you had to read that

[@henryisdumb]

hahahah don't apologise it's fine

[@rachelosullivan5435]

You are lowly becoming one of my favourite youtubers :)

[@KetaFPV]

Instant like for that intro

[@kilerratt]

You are fast becoming one of my favourite content creators

[@southparkfirefly]

I didn't expect to hear Dan and Arin's voice here~

[@TheWolfeDen]

You're too good to us

[@henryisdumb]

that’s very kind to say, hope you enjoyed it

[@jevinday]

The CEO doesn't even understand piracy. Pirating music wasn't because "we thought music should be free for everyone", it was a rebellion against the labels and overpriced CDs that artists didn't get enough of a cut from. He's clearly jaded and thinks that the average person is a bumbling idiot who doesn't think about art and just wants AI slop to play in the background. I know that those people exist, but they are not the majority

[@Juliatpp]

fully expected you to show up with a moustache when you said you were getting serious but the christmas sweater was a nice surprise

[@henryisdumb]

no one would want to see that horrifying look, especially at christmas

[@samuelsolomon7330]

Jeeves is bald, you're not. 😊

[@henryisdumb]

wow that really means a lot to hear

[@Bahamut_Mega]

How does this have under 5K views? Fantastic video!

[@spiderfran286]

glad to see Paul McCartney's waxwork sticking up for the real Paul

[@henryisdumb]

i’ve gotta stick up for my creator

[@madara-mada-mada-go]

Never stop waffling... I like the funny British word. Also, perfect video to come out right before my student discount expires and I break up with Spotify *rubs hands like a supervillain* I knew they were going downhill when they started trying to sell me thing rather than suggest new music. And the whole "TikTok type scrolling tab" whatever was also a red flag. Idk they're kinda cringe, Spotify is for streaming music and they need to stick to that. Also, if you ever want to do a followup, there's a problem with both randos uploading songs that artists don't want to put on Spotify, as well as randos tagging artists and putting random music onto big artists profiles.

[@DevastationIndustries]

My content is on spotify :( I just want people to be able to hear it and know they aren't alone while the world falls apart and emotions that lack words need to be felt. In other words, my music sucks and is really sad.

[@henryisdumb]

my videos suck and are really sad so at least it's not just you

[@michall6376]

Don’t pick on subway. I was on a highway stop just today where I got to choose between McDonald’s and Subway and I chose McDonald’s and it was disgusting. I’m still thinking about a teriyaki sandwich I could have gotten instead of the cheese over fake bacon bun I had to struggle with.

[@malkavcandy]

i love the little hippo in your livingroom

[@Jartran72]

Amazing video mate. 7 word plus comment for the algorithm and subbed, liked.

[@henryisdumb]

why thank you, much appreciated

[@danielsmokesmids]

you sound like what i imagined ask jeeves to sound like as a kid

[@henryisdumb]

genuinely that will stay with me til my death

[@tinkertanner4051]

Hearing you mention that you have a problem that you can't stop playing a game and then hearing DK64 music activated my fight or flight response 😂

[@henryisdumb]

hahahahahahah i legit started playing donkey kong country today too for the first time, it's a real problem

[@SubArchitectDJ]

Why people still don;t really use torrents any more will always baffle me

[@a.s.1484]

14:34 noooo you commited sin by showing crochet while saying "knitting"

[@henryisdumb]

NO, god damn stock footage website i found that on, i will never recover from this

[@zerebusgarago]

Another thing about all of this that perhaps need to be mentioned: What exactly do the publishers do these days? Like Isn't Spotify the publisher and distributor at this point? Why is the Warner Music Group involved at all? And what is their cut from the revenue Spotify does pay out? The way forward for artists should probably be to cut out as many middleman between them and the listener as possible.

[@henryisdumb]

yeah i had a whole chapter on record labels but it sort of turned into it's own video and upset me too much to even comprehend, it's a whole other can of worms

[@GrannyGamer1]

Thank sanity for radio stations online!

[@progressivehardindustrialslug]

Most people can't tell my current songs are AI. If I did not disclose this the average person would never know. Personally, I turn down AI songs that don't at least sound a little like I do when playing. So my AI songs kinda sound like ME on guitar or drums or bass. Not the vocals though. I cant sing like that.

[@ChloroDude]

okay this video seems like the type to be like "500 subscriber channel suddenly gets video with like 200k views" and i honestly thought it was until i checked. bravo, this video is awesome ai music is always something i look for when i listen to music just to specifically avoid. a nice part is that you practically never find it in genres i listen to, but still i hate it

[@henryisdumb]

why thank you that’s super kind of you to say!

[@eatatjoes6751]

Oh hey, the British man is here to soothe my brain nerves with the downfall of a thing I don’t really listen to! And also yes, I now have a voice to the retired butler Jeeves. Cool. I do the different art with the typey typey and the letter puking, and even that’s being taken over by A.I. It makes me angry.

[@stakochan]

Save me KZbin to mp3 websites

[@fredster2000]

I’m sure this video is great and all, but do you think you can convert it to audio form and make it into a podcast? I wanna listen to it on Spotify. :)

[@henryisdumb]

god sorry, i need to think about releasing a 12 episode version of this on spotify with unbelievably long ad breaks

[@conconviviality]

Swell vid! Thank you!

[@kerstin3289]

Those are mince pies???? I thought it would be with meat and not something sweet :o

[@henryisdumb]

YOU THOUGHT WE PUT BEEF IN THERE (i say that i have no idea why they're called mince pies and i'm offensively british)

[@beldurello]

It's unbelievable that you don't have more views

[@henryisdumb]

that’s very kind of you to say, thank you

[@Lwhale.3797]

FATHER HAS BLESSED US WITH A NEW VIDEO 🙌🙌🙌

[@henryisdumb]

just in time for christmas

[@michaelstevenson5044]

Welp it's time we go back to Limewire /s

[@PInnHeAd]

Spotify started almost perfectly, simple, clean, functional, i mean there some hitches but it was like you could mix all your albums and such without much hassle AND find new amazing music. Lately it has been so shit, its "shuffle" is just weird, i had a playlist of like 50 songs and had it on shuffle, it played 1 song like 7 times, and skipped like 10... Then there is discover weekly, discover? discover what? it shows songs i have in playlist, songs i have liked or songs from bands i listen to a lot. Where is the discovery? Sadly the last bastion that i would always say is still good and ALMOST worth the price in itself was release radar, it USED to give me like 20-25 really good songs, from new artist that sounded a bit like the stuff i listen to, and of course from bands i do listen to. Now i am liking maybe 5-7 songs, if that sometimes...

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

30:11 12 hours of content? Ive been a guest on podcasts for the last 2 months and done more time than that! And im lazy!!😂

[@ThatIrishRose317]

I’m a simple person. I see a new Henry Lewis video, I click. Also: I see a video taking the p!ss out of Spotify, I click. In short, I clicked. And I’m glad I did. Another top shelf video essay

[@henryisdumb]

i hope you enjoyed it! and i hope i took the piss out of spotify as much as you hoped for

[@uniporn]

hell yeah creepy nuts 😤😤😤

[@JollyRanchersGrandma]

Hey KZbin brought me back, did anyone ever tell you, you sound like ask Jeeves?. seriously though I've used Spotify for 4 years now and every month they manage to piss me off with their buggy mess. I'd move platforms but they all have their issues from what I've found.. Not to mention the ad breaks for podcasts. Sure as a premium user I can skip them. But for god's sake if I'm paying money I shouldn't even be interrupted at all, it's clear they're desperate for any extra revenue at all squeezing the artists and their members. Meanwhile the CEO is making 400 Million dollars a year, cutting corners and participating in shady practices. I remember when they were artificially promoting Drake when Scorpion dropped in 2018

[@henryisdumb]

genuinely the thing about adverts on podcasts made me look into this when i was on a long drive a few months ago, it drove me mental ahahah

[@plebmcpleb5761]

Loved that video! You're getting better and better. Thank you for pointing it out, how blatantly evil these corpos actually are. Spotify is an example of what happens when you give the reins of an entire industry to remorseless tech-minded suits. They'll strip mine everything and leave the creative teams who made any of this possible to pick up the pieces after them. The same thing is now happening with AI, and it's been worrying to me, to see so many people uncritically accept it. I too hope that it won't be around for much longer.

[@henryisdumb]

as always, thanks, your comments are always super nice to hear, so i'm glad you enjoyed it! hopefully i can start doing things that aren't just me getting angry for an hour ahahah, hopefully

[@plebmcpleb5761]

​@@henryisdumbYou absolutely do not come off as overly negative, it's a pleasure to hear you speak about whatever tropic you have in mind. And if you feel like talking about something that makes you happier next, that's fine too!

[@mogplaysgames]

Great video! Terrible pies

[@henryisdumb]

they weren’t that bad actually which shocked even me

[@ashleepurefancy]

HENRY!

[@henryisdumb]

THAT IS MY NAME

[@dietgilroy]

can i have these mince pies pleasw? :3

[@henryisdumb]

unfortunately i inhaled all of them

[@Junosensei]

You were right! Yet another video about the history of something I have no interest in, but will enjoy anyway because you're the one presenting it! ꉂ೭(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)౨” You look good in a suit, btw.

[@Junosensei]

And you listen to Ado! Squeeeeeee! \(ૢ˃ꌂ˂⁎)/

[@henryisdumb]

i told you i had one on the way hahah, i hope you enjoy the rest of it, it gets weird around the 22 minute mark

[@mikb5587]

If you use it then you are the problem. Make a stand and do without.

[@Apextruth]

After every sentence you insert a joke, it’s kind of annoying. Hard to sit through when you insert too many corny jokes that take away from the video

[@henryisdumb]

why thank you that’s always my goal

[@Mochi_Wan]

aye early

[@henryisdumb]

i hope you enjoyed it (apologies if not ahaha)

[@michall6376]

I took the trouble of listening to your friend’s songs and they’re proper Brit rock songs, but nothing I’d go back for. I don’t know how much Spotify earns off of him but I’d imagine it isn’t much. Maybe you guys should consider taking up a proper 9-5 job instead of thinking that uploading your creative work to social media entitles you to a steady income? Making a living from music is a privilege given to 0.1% of musicians, not a right that should be given to you just by uploading your songs to streaming services.

[@eatatjoes6751]

I hate the *“just gedda real job”* complaint because it’s not like they’re not going to get crapped on anywhere else by a greedy CEO/board of directors/whoever that doesn’t care about them - hell, the public doesn’t even treat people with “real jobs” with that much dignity either! The people who immediately default to that also are kind of insulting because they really don’t care, they just want to see art people “humbled” by “real work.” that they won’t even do themselves.

[@smirnovamaria9611]

I mean, guy have live gigs. Having live gigs immediately means what you earn from Spotify doesn't matter. Having a bandcamp with at least 1 album sold means that Spotify earnings doesn't matter. Spotify doesn't own anyone living wage, but it always pays at least thousands times less then any other platform.

[@witness1013]

Umm - imagine someone calling a self-serve music platform - 'ruined' - wonder who's fault that is ?!

[@henryisdumb]

daniel ek's probably