I Gave Up Spotify for a Week: This Is How It Went

[cassidyskowera]

I am currently in my third year of college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee majoring in JAMS (Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies). In my Research for Advertising and Public Relations course, we were assigned to give up a brand/product we use every day, and I chose Spotify. Here is my summary of how it went: After not using Spotify for a week, I can safely say it means a lot to me. It made my week feel boring and I thought I would go fine without it but that wasn’t the case. Music is a big part of my life and yes, I did use an alternative, but it just wasn’t the same. Not being able to listen to the curated playlists I have made or listening to the “New Music Friday” playlist made my week feel off. I know that might be dramatic and I didn’t realize how much I depended on Spotify till I did this assignment. Not to mention the features, more specifically the group session feature. My friends and I frequently use it and with the alternative I used, there was no way for us to do that. At the beginning of the week, it was hard, but I think towards the end it was the hardest. I’ve gone a day or two without listening to music before but around day five I wanted to open the app. I thought it would get easier as the week progressed, but I was wrong. 

[Sebasty]

Hey @cassidyskowera 

That was an insightful assignment! I'd predict it would happen to me in a similar way, just a bit differently.

I do go for days without opening Spotify as I have a sizable local music library and a nice collection on Bandcamp (which has a decent mobile app). But for discovering new music and joining thematic listening parties on Discord, Spotify is still the one and only. Everyone uses Spotify and it's easy to make a free account to easily join in on playlist parties, so that's why the service is so well used in the Discord communities I'm in. Some people may even have a subscription in Apple, Tidal or whatever, but still have a Spotify account for the social stuff.

Also everynoise.com site (which is based on Spotify's library) is so much fun. Majority of my discoveries is through using that and friends/artists with extensive playlists.

So basically I could freely go for a week if I'm not into socializing or digging for new music. But Spotify is still a well-used service for me.