It’s Time to Find Alternatives to Spotify

I’ve been a Premium Spotify user for more than a decade now (I want to say since 2008ish), and it’s generally been a positive experience. I love the idea of playlists that I can create and take with me on my phone, and by extension in my car. I love being able to try out new music. But I’m finding the experience increasingly frustrating.

• The Inability to directly play Local Files. I have thousands of legally purchased songs in my personal music library I’d occasionally like to listen to. Now before you tell me that you can add your music library as a source, I’m well aware of that. I’m also well aware of how frustrating it is when Spotify is suddenly unable to play a song that you have in said source. For example, there are a couple of versions of Nothing Lasts Forever by Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack, one instrumental-ish , but another one with Lisa Bonet on vocals reciting a Rumi poem on top of it in the most ethereal voice (both versions are on the Gift Of Love II album, and in my music library). Unfortunately, when I remove the grayed-out item and attempt to add-it again, inexplicably Spotify will not show me my local version, and instead only shows the version in its online catalog. I cannot find the one with the Lisa Bonet vocals in the Spotify online catalog. And it’s not a question of not having access to the local share (I literally have File Explorer browsing my local network share where the song is in a window right next to Spotify). One would think that you’d be able to drag the file from File Explorer directly onto Spotify…