Why I Canceled My Spotify Subscription (and How I Listen to Music Now)

To put it simply, I didn’t have the $11 to spare that month. I logged into the computer, and hit “Cancel My Membership”. I wasn’t about to give up music.. especially on my walks. So I needed to find a workaround. That’s when I had the brilliant idea of redownloading the Apple Music app. No, I wasn’t starting another subscription, (although I did take them up on there 3-month free offer but that eventually ended) I went back old school style and started using the Apple Music app as my iPod again.

How I Get Music On My Phone

To get music on my iPod (Apple Music App) I first have to download the music. One of the ways I download music is also an old school way.. IYKYK. But here are some other ways:

• Buying Cds either in person at like a Walmart/Best Buy/thrift store or online on eBay/etsy. You can Also rent cds from libraries. Then I Upload it to iTunes; which you can download if you don’t have a Mac/ or the music app if your pc more up to date.

• From Soundcloud. Basically just downloading the filing and it opens up on iTunes.

• Buying the song/album directly from the artist. You can go to their website and find out the best ways to do this/support them.

Then I plug my iPhone into my MacBook, I click the little phone symbol, go down to music, and selected entire library. You don’t have to do that though, you can select specific playlists or, artist that you want on your iPod.

How I Discover Music

Now that I don’t use Spotify, I actually have to set aside time to find music. Some ways I discover new songs:

• Tik tok

• Youtube/youtube music

• Soundcloud

• Reddit

• Bloggers, mainly the ones who’s primary focuses is music/ music curation I like Savingconnie

& Sleepingongems

• Or even sometimes from movies. I’m a movie buff and every now and then I always come across a good song or if I’m lucky soundtrack

Pros & Cons

There’s always a good and bad side to these things. Here are my pros and cons.

Pros:

• Now that I have to go through more steps to get music on my phone, I am more intentional with what I download. When I used Spotify I would just add whatever song to my playlist cause the cover looked cool, or like 2 seconds of it sounded good. When I’m uploading songs to my iPhone I’m like wait… is this song good enough to be filling up my phone’s space?

• I’m more excited to listen to music on my walks because of the work I put in or the money I spent.

• Saving money

• I get to organize and set up my music

Cons:

• The only con I can think of is finding new music. Spotify would casually throw in new music. But tbh, when I was paying for a subscription I rarely ever delve into spotify’s dj or new music things. I would just stick to my library. It wasn’t until I went free on there that I started to discover new music.

Oddly canceling Spotify wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I wish I had done this sooner. This journey has made me appreciate music more and sparked that child like joy I used to have when I was younger.