However, there is something annoying on the Spotify homepage that drove me away...
What is with the growing trend on HN of just being overly negative about posts that are shared here?
But you can, if you have the audio files you can use them as local files [1] in your Spotify library.
The worst is on iOS where you have to be on the same wifi and wait randomly. And sometimes without warning the files just go away. This is unacceptable. People need to play music for dance, yoga, exercise classes for their job. You can't just randomly throw away the files to have them discover this when the class starts.
The "podcast pushing" is an underrated reason to quit; It's why I did. I decided it was effectively a safety issue.
I subscribed to Spotify Premium when I bought a car and installed an Android Auto head unit, telling myself "this will basically be my radio and I can control it from the head unit without messing with my phone"
The breaking point for me was when I had to scroll past 3-4 rows of podcast suggestions (onto an entire other screen) to find any music on my homepage. At that point, I decided it was unsafe, and began the long, arduous path of going back to 2008 and buying all my music piecemeal to host on PlexAmp. I'm quite happy with the results now, though.
You can do this on Apple Music. Upload from one device, and it's available to stream on any of your devices. For me it's the main reason I use Apple over Spotify. https://support.apple.com/guide/music/import-items-already-o...
In regards to Spotify allowing uploading of your own songs, I remember I think they did have that at the beginning. I remember there used to be an option to import your iTunes library on Windows. I uploaded a small collection of MP3's and it worked okay, but was somewhat cumbersome compared to say Foobar or MusicBee.
For me I navigate my music via My Liked songs + my own playlists for particular moods. If I open the app and press play it defaults to where I left off.
The fact there is a home page which shows options similar to what I like is fine, sometimes useful. Yes I’d prefer to customise it. Yes the recommendations aren’t perfect. Not a reason to quit, I love Spotify and haven’t found a better alternative.
The one major gripe is not being able to upload my own songs, I love listening to remixes and covers, youtube, spotify or tiktok has plenty of songs I’d love in my library. But it’s a nightmare for a business model that respects artists and a cost structure that needs to be covered. Again, no real good alternatives that do this well + have a normal library + be legal.