Apple Co-Founder Says He Has Canceled His Spotify Subscription — But It's Not Just About Joe Rogan

Apple Inc AAPL co-founder Steve Wozniak says he has canceled his music streaming account on Spotify Technologies S.A.’s SPOT platform.

What Happened: Wozniak took to Twitter to announce that he is quitting Spotify as there are “plenty of alternatives.”

I cancelled my Spotify account. There are plenty of alternatives . It’s not just Joe Rogen or Neil Young. Recently our Tesla SiriusXM radio went out so I listened to a favorite song on Spotify. The sound was tinny and awful. Spotify doesn't care about the same things that I do.

— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) February 9, 2022

Wozniak said it was not just the recent controversy about Joe Rogan or Neil Young that motivated him to drop his Spotify subscription.

“The sound was tinny and awful.  Spotify doesn't care about the same things that I do,” said Wozniak. 

See Also: How To Buy Spotify (SPOT) Shares

Why It Matters: Wozniak’s Twitter following was happy to recommend alternatives to Spotify, particularly Jack Dorsey-led Block Inc’s SQ Tidal.

Here’s Apple Music’s sound options but Tidal also has hi-fi pic.twitter.com/joCG8U9Zxq

— chantz (@iChantz) February 9, 2022

Tidal. Quality without the walled garden of pure ideology.

— Lazar Lissitzky (@LLissitzky) February 9, 2022

As per Spotify’s website, the streaming firm provides its free users with AAC 128 kbit/s music quality on the web player, while Premium subscribers get AAC 256 kbit/s.

Tidal’s HiFi service provides uncompressed lossless sound quality streaming at 1411 kbps. Its Master Quality audio is streamed up to 9216 kbps, according to the company’s website.

Spotify HiFi, a feature that will let users listen to CD quality music announced last February, has not yet been rolled out. In December, a community moderator on Spotify’s website said that they had no information on the availability of HiFi music.

Both Apple and Amazon.com, Inc AMZN offer lossless audio to subscribers at no extra cost.

Price Action: Spotify shares closed 5.7% higher at $175.49 in the regular session and fell another 1.25% in the after-hours trading on Wednesday.

Read Next: Spotify CEO Confirms Removal Of Joe Rogan Podcast Episodes — But Says It Wasn't The Company That Took Them Down

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia