A personal update: I finally deleted my Spotify account. I removed it from my phone months ago, and have been slowly going through all of my liked songs (3k+ when I made the active decision to work towards leaving it) and my ‘to listen to’ playlist (1k~).
I’m now the proud owner of two massive spreadsheets, one containing single songs and the other containing full albums I want to buy eventually.
Spotify doesn’t allow you to copy and paste the text from song listings, discouraging the transfer of playlists to spreadsheets. Yes, it was very, very tedious. But these spreadsheets were all typed out, one song or album at a time, and I am all the better for it.
I’ll consider myself lucky. While I have sunk the better half of a decade of my music exploration, discovery, and cataloging into Spotify’s ecosystem, I’ve actively culled my ‘liked’ songs playlist approximately once a year to get rid of songs I simply no longer enjoy or value.
For anyone preparing to leave Spotify short of cold turkey, I’d highly recommend this, especially if you plan to then buy the music from artists (which, c’mon. Do it!). If you wouldn’t buy that for a dollar, it doesn’t need to be taking up mental real estate. Refine your tastes: you know what you kinda like, really like, and really really like.
Why waste the mental real estate on something you don’t even value a dollars worth?
Speaking of value, the songs and albums I have bought since beginning this wind down have been excellent. By really having to make decisions about what was worth my time and money, I’ve completely rejuvenated my listening experience. I’ve ended up spending more time with the albums I have bought since, I understand them better, and their positive impact has been more firmly imprinted on my life.
I never do number ratings on this site, but I’d rate this choice a 10/10.
Brief Thoughts is a column of sorts by Lubert Das for Resident Sound. Updates, musings and, well, brief thoughts. Putting the B-rate in Blog.
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