"I'm not seeing a problem so how is there a problem" is not the right critique in an era where the selection algorithm is so personalised.
Spotify is awful for me, I concur with the original article. YouTube Music is heading slowly the same way. At this rate I'll have to cast around for another phone that can take an SD card again.
The service I really miss is eMusic, they had little in the way of well known music so leaned into small label music and it was wonderful.
Get a standalone music player and you will have full control (but you also may have some upfront work to do your music downloading and create your playlists but worth it imo). I got a Miyoo Mini game emulator for my kid and ended up getting one for myself, all for ~$50. Being offline (by choice, the device does have wifi) and being able fully customize the thing, backup the SD it's really great. It's such a whiff of fresh air to be honest, you get no popups, no attention misdirects, everything is there waiting for you and no corp messes up you.
A lot of the get an iPod comments ignore music discovery. I like new music and think new music is good and would like to discover new music. Having to buy all the music I want to try would be to expensive.
College and community radio are infinitely better for new music discovery. KEXP and KTRU here in Houston have expanded my horizons significantly. Bandcamp as well.
Spotify is awful for me, I concur with the original article. YouTube Music is heading slowly the same way. At this rate I'll have to cast around for another phone that can take an SD card again.
The service I really miss is eMusic, they had little in the way of well known music so leaned into small label music and it was wonderful.