Copying is not theft (1 minute)

*logs onto Soulseek instead*

Speaking about notifications, did you check out your phone’s battery conserving settings? My friends having a Samsung or Xiaomi also have this issue due to aggressive restrictions on less-used apps. You can find more info and workarounds here: https://dontkillmyapp.com

I use ListenBrainz for a libre alternative.

Go on there and share some of your stuff, if you want. We’ll be glad if people help keep the network alive. ;)

+1 to ListenBrainz. It’s an awesome tool for tracking your listening habits (kinda like Last.fm). Combined with Pano Scrobbler, I can create collage pics of my most listened-to artists or albums of a given time period (per week/month/year). It’s a great service and I want to donate to that project in the future, because I get so much value out of it.

Richard Stallman wrote a quick page on the shady things Spotify does (3 minute read not counting the linked articles). Although only loosely related to what you asked for. According to the info I found online, Discover Weekly should be safe from the kinds of sponsorships you talk about (the whole article takes about 8-15 minutes to read, but I quoted the important part below).

A representative for Spotify tells Vox that the user experience of Discover Weekly will not change — e.g., Nike can’t buy the playlist for the week and serve everyone a Frank Ocean song — and reiterates, “Discover Weekly is, and will remain, a powerful means of artists winning new fans.