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It’s Chromium underneath, so using it increases Google’s control over web standards
It’s Chromium underneath, so using it increases Google’s control over web standards
I’m all for paying for the media I consume, but I will never pay for YouTube. First and foremost, I don’t think they pay artists enough, which is why I buy all my music albums individually on services such as Bandcamp.
Second, I believe Google is working hard on turning the internet into a privacy violating walled garden riddled with unblockable ads, where all relevant technologies and standards are de facto controlled by them. I use uBlock and reVanced to block ads on YouTube and pay content creators through Patreon because I WANT to hurt Google financially by spending their compute resources without giving them ad impressions. I think everyone should do the same.
I have 170 albums in my Bandcamp collection. I have a lot more on my mp3 collection which I have bought via other means. Each album is maybe $10 on average, so that is around $1700. I have used Bandcamp for around 8 years after 7digital closed their EU store and eMusic became trash. So that’s around $17 per month. Not a lot of money in my book, music means a lot to me!
I’ll just use this opportunity to mention kagi.com, a search engine that you pay for, but which doesn’t track you and gives you controls for customizing your search results yourself instead of letting an algorithm build a profile of your habits. I’ve used it for months now, and I’m not going back.
So much this! I don’t use Spotify, I buy all my music on Bandcamp. Sometimes I buy an album after just hearing the first song because I find it interesting, but then after a few more listens I realize that the album is not what I thought it was. However, I’m already committed because I paid for it, and it now sits at the top of my collection, so I continue to listen to it. Sometimes it turns out I find qualities in the music that I didn’t notice at the first listen, and I learn to like it. Sometimes not, and I ditch it.
This was also the way I discovered music before Spotify even existed, I just never changed my habits (I just used other services than Bandcamp back then). I think more people should try turning off the algorithmic entertainment faucet that is Spotify and try committing a bit more to the music that they listen to. Also, a lot more money goes to the artists this way, Spotify is basically stealing from the artists.
This regularly happens for me in Kotlin due to inlined functions
Yes, sorry, but I can’t take something seriously if every paragraph begins and ends with an emoji. I know it’s dismissive, but all my Facebook lunatic conspiracy theory alarm bells are blaring.