Removing Everything is Unfamiliar from streaming is something that I did not take lightly. My relationship with Spotify as a user was already on the rocks, but I was afraid to admit that it was time to break up. The first red flag was the $100M deal they signed with Joe Rogan in 2020. I briefly considered cancelling my subscription when the news broke, but Spotify was already ingrained in my daily life. No ethical consumption under capitalism, amirite?
And therein lies the problem. I had been streaming for so long that I forgot how I used to interact with audio media. In 2011, I sold my iPod Touch and started to use my iPhone exclusively to listen to music and podcasts on the go. Data plans weren’t fast enough to go streaming only quite yet, but 4G LTE was right around the corner. A year later, I signed up for a 48-hour trial of Spotify. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when I became a paid member because billing records only go back a few years, but I know that I was a daily user by the end of 2017 because that’s when I finally threw out my iHome clock radio.
I may have sold my iPod Touch, but I continued to use my original iPod to listen to podcasts at home until I moved to New York.
I started to notice bands were leaving Spotify near the end of 2025. Some were more established bands like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, but others were bands that we were playing shows with like Pigeon. The final kick in the ass I needed was when my partner brought it up to me after we went to a local show where every band on the bill said they pulled their music from the service.
It was time for us to leave, as well.
After thinking about it for a few days I decided that if I was going to remove Everything is Unfamiliar’s catalog from Spotify, I would remove it from all streaming services. You can make the argument that some streaming services are more ethical than others — as far as I know, Spotify is the only one whose CEO invested $700M in AI weaponry — but none of them pay artists fairly, and Spotify was the only one that people used to listen to us. If we’re going to make $0 from people listening to our music, I’d rather we do it on our terms.
That’s when I realized something — if I’m pulling our music from streaming over ethical concerns, I can no longer justify streaming other people’s music.
This thought process led me on a journey of discovery. I knew that it was still possible to listen to music and podcasts offline — most music and podcast apps support offline listening — but I didn’t want to use my phone. If I’m going back to the old way, I want to go all the way back. I want to go back to listening to everything on cassette!
Okay — maybe not that far back.
But I did want to get a dedicated device for music and podcast consumption. My phone only has 256GB of storage. That may sound like a lot, but things add up quickly once you start downloading instead of streaming. That’s why I started streaming in the first place. In 2012, I had a 16GB iPhone 5. My podcast library alone is 120GB — and that’s after optimization. It sure does feel like this was all part of a long con to make us comfortable renting everything in perpetuity, doesn’t it?
Anyway, I’m planning to document my journey in a series of blog entires, because I think it could be helpful for others that are thinking of leaving streaming in the dust. I’ll talk about the digital audio players I considered, how to easily download and optimize a podcast archive, my failed attempt to get access to my old iTunes account, and more. I would also like to start writing about what I’m listening to each week. Originally, I had planned to do this all in one post, but this is slowly approaching 1000 words and I haven’t even mentioned that I found the “lost” Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start EPs last week.