Music Piracy Is Back in a Big Way

www.wired.com Music Piracy Is Back in a Big Way—Especially From YouTube

Visits to music piracy websites went up more than 13 percent last year, a new report says. The majority of those visits were to sites that allow users to download the audio from YouTube URLs.

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I know this does not make me look good - but I am a YouTube Premium subscriber. I had Spotify, but they jacked up their family plan rate, and it was only a few bucks cheaper than Premium, then I got the ad-free (without adblockers). I mostly did it to help my kids avoid the toxic ads that are littered into the kid content. The main reason I stick with some of this stuff is for the discovery. Pandora was great, Spotify is ok.
Regardless - the smart playlists, and AI stuff on YouTube music is AWFUL. I cannot put into words how bad it is. Spotify got it right about 1/4-1/2 of the time. YouTube, maybe 1/100. Constantly recommending a country, which I cannot stand. When it isn't doing country, it recommends hard rock/metal which I also do not listen to. I feel like I need a new way to find music, then I could sever ties with all these trashy subscriptions.
- I have started buying vinyl with the digital downloads when I find a great album. I feel better doing it this way. Most of my music is not super big name artists.
- Not been my experience. Yt music playlists are really good for me and I've discovered a lot of new music through it.
  
  That surprises me, but I suppose it had to work for some listeners or they wouldn't have gotten it past testing. I have even tried clearing my listen history and starting over - still comes up with country and (going to clarify) 'metal' . I like rock and alternative and some forms of pop, as well as a bit of hip hop. cannot fathom why it suggests what it does.
  
  Do you ever thumb down anything, or do you just skip the stuff you don't like?
  
  Every time. I am not sure it actually changes anything. I have submitted feedback and bug reports to YTM as well. Just generic replies.
  
  I feel you. Feels like the algorithm just does whatever now, on main YouTube and Shorts it is awful as well, constantly showing me the same 5 shorts and recommending me channels I have asked to "not recommend" multiple times. No amount of disliking and clicking "Not Interested" seems to help, at least not for longer than a day.
  
  I dunno, sorry to hear about your experience. I've never had a thumb downed song come back up, not ever. And it absolutely affects what kinds of things come up in my radios.
  
  I never thumbs up or down and I find the recommended albums and "Mixed for your" playlists are pretty accurate. I hate that my grandfathered price went up last December tho
- I just listen to playlists that people make or youtube videos of song genres or artists that I like.
- Soulseek if you don't mind data hoarding.
  I have yt premium for the same reason. Toddlers have little patience for ads on their Kindle fire, and they get upset when they click one to buy a luxury watch and can't figure out how to get back to cocomelon.
  I actually like the service and feel it's fairly priced. So I don't mind paying for it. I stream yt music all day at work.
- I still havent found anything can match the experience of finding music from online discussions or list hopping on RYM.
  
  Last fm users with similar taste can be a gold mine
  
  What is rym?
  
  https://rateyourmusic.com/
- Same boat here. My God it's unbearable how bad YouTube premium is.
  
  I get good value out of it...
  .....That being said, I curate my own feed heavily, and still have to use a ton of add-ons to keep from going insane - fuck your shorts YouTube.
  It is admittedly terrible.

194 comments