Vasilis’ nerd blog presents
I used to be excited about services like spotify. Now I didn’t have to find that one person who happens to have that LP record and go over there and tape it, and I didn’t have to enter people’s computer via limewire to download low bitrate mp3’s. Instead I could just listen to most music right away. Which is nice. Until I read that they don’t really pay their artists. And that they generate songs with llm’s. And that they promote these songs. And that they spend money on machines that kill.
So I canceled my spotify account. There are some things you should consider before canceling: all your playlists will be gone as well. Also the shared playlists that you started. As a result, some friends of mine were unhappy that I left. I invited them to also come over to Qobuz and Bandcamp. I’ll be there, until these services become assholes too. We had a family account at spotify. I had to cancel that. The rest of the family didn’t want to move away (yet), so they created a duo account. I downloaded all my data, and deleted the account. It feels good.
I have never been excited about linkedin. I opened an account a few years ago because I thought it would let me follow my students, to see what they were up to. But linkedin doesn’t allow you to follow a simple timeline, it does silly stuff with algo’s, and it uses ridiculous translation machines, and it sends me spam messages, and it is owned by microsoft, a company that earns billions of dollars from machines that kill.
So I canceled that account as well. There is absolutely nothing to consider when you cancel that account. Just close it and you’re done. It is a ridiculous place where people act crazy. People say things like “I am grateful for having spent time with company x” when company x just fired them. “Fuck company x” is the appropriate reaction, but the algo doesn’t like those messages.
I will not miss both these accounts. They are absolutely horrible businesses that don’t deserve my money or time.