I found that Amazon Music had a widget that accomplished most of what the Spotify player did.  It not only displayed the album art but also contained a mini player that allowed you to play around 30 second of that particular song.  Not only did I start authoring new posts with this new widget but also retrofitted older posts.

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Nothing is ever that simple though.  The Amazon Music embedded player worked just fine at first, even if the album art was a comparatively smaller section of the widget.  However, it eventually abruptly stops behaving that way.  It now still gives you the album art but instead now links to their page where you may play the music.  I first noticed it weeks ago but hoped that it would revert back to how it behaved before.  It hasn’t.

I’d like it to have a basic look, feel, function, and features.  This means a service that includes:

• Display album art
• Play a short clip without leaving this website
• Host the music; I don’t want to get into potential copyright issues by storing the music on this site
• Contain a large and diverse catalog of music, some music referred to on this site are popular music covers by Chinese artists

Amazon Music no longer plays music without leaving the site, and I’ve eliminated them.  However, two other services are ones that I eliminated before but will now reconsider:  Spotify and Apple Music.

This decision became the classic avoidance-avoidance conflict.  They both qualify, but I which one do I avoid?

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The case against Spotify

I’m a staunch supporter of freedom of speech.  I firmly believe that everyone has the right to express their opinion without the government silencing them.  However, simply because you have the right to express your opinion, does not mean anyone needs to hand you a megaphone.  Certainly, no one needs to give you an audience.  Where do I draw that line?  When you’re putting other people in danger by your words.

You may decide to take an alternate route when Waze tells you that there’s an accident that has stopped traffic across all northbound traffic on Interstate 5, but what if there is no such accident?  Your decision is sound, but only if the information you used to base that decision is sound.  If the information is flawed, the decision is bad.

During the height of the pandemic, Spotify took considerable criticism for continuing to host The Joe Rogan Experience.  He sparked considerable skepticism on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and other mitigations?  You may wonder, “What is the harm?  He’s just leading us to contemplate the issues.”  However, if he misrepresents something as fact when it isn’t, then it’s simply manipulation.

Statistically, people in right leaning states resisted vaccines and masks.  I understand that.  They’re also the ones with the higher COVID-19 mortality rates; the numbers don’t lie.  To continue to feed this conversation for the sake of popularity and profitability, crosses that line in my book.

Orthogonally, to listen to Joe Rogan laughing as his friend describes sexually manipulating young women further cemented my initial decision to boycott them.

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The case against Apple Music

I joined Microsoft right out of school; it was my home for the first twenty-nine years of my professional career.  I spent that entire time working on Microsoft Windows.  Generally, this would make me abstain from products by competitors.  However, when Apple ran dozens of ads mocking the very product which I dedicated decades of my life on, I took it personally.

Bolstering that opinion were other quasi-deceptive ads.  I distinctly remember a flashy Apple ad that played this song Viva La Vida from Coldplay.  That ad ends with the words “Exclusively on iTunes” appearing just as he sings “…when I ruled the world”.  Naturally, I cursed Apple for having said exclusive.  On one day, after having seen that ad for the nth time during a recorded show, I decided to measure how long before it was available on Zune, my music service.  Imagine to my surprise that it was already available.  In all fairness, I’m sure the Coldplay ad ran to the very last second that Apple had the exclusivity.  The fact that this impression lingered long after the ads had stopped, well, that’s just a bonus to them.

Was it criminal or illegal?  Probably not, but was it slimy?  Absolutely.  How strong is my aversion to Apple products?

• I refused to touch the menu at a restaurant when it was an iPad.  I simply looked over someone’s shoulder and made my selection.
• During a morale event, a go-carting event, the way to enter our information was an iPad.  A teammate helped me enter my information.
• When a teammate placed their iPhone at the lunch table, I uttered a little too loudly, “Someone left me a doorstop.”  He shortly put it away.
• I have referred to Steve Jobs as the antichrist.  More than once.

I can make this list considerably longer, but you get the idea.  I won’t claim that any of it is rational, but it’s still the way I felt.  My detest for the company has waned somewhat since I left Microsoft, but given the choice, I still would not give them any money.

For me to promote an Apple product, would be like a lifelong, generational Boston Red Sox enthusiast wearing a New York Yankees jacket in public, even in the freezing cold.

Even the mere suggestion of switching to Apple Music was met with multiple responses like, “Are you feeling okay?”  My wife physically walked over and put her hand on my forehead to feel my temperature.

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Which one would I ultimately end up picking?  While I honestly struggled with this for a while and found both companies detestable in their own ways.  However, there was one point which eventually crystalized it for me.

I have followed the Atlanta Braves since 1982.  I have (and will) root for them independent of which team they face.  Yes, this includes the local, to me, Seattle Mariners.  However, I must acknowledge that this could’ve easily been a different team or even sport.  As strong as I may identify with this particular team, I understand that under a different set of circumstances, it could’ve been all different.  In 1982, the Braves were in the National League West with the Dodgers and Giants as division rivals; Today, they are division rivals with the Mets and Marlins.

My kinship with Microsoft grew out my initial employment and subsequent 29 years of service.  It is in that sense of loyalty that I developed an animosity towards Apple.  Sure, some of their ads were a bit slimy, but so were some of Microsoft’s marketing practices.  Ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Joe Rogan’s misogyny and continued spreading of misinformation for popularity and profitability runs deeper than that.  It runs beyond freedom of expression into willful disregard for the safety of others.  In a very visceral way, it violates my moral compass.  And Spotify’s continued to support for him means that I cannot, with a clear conscience, promote their platform.

At the end of the day the question was…  Would I pick the one that violates my moral compass OR the one that carries with it 29-years of cultural (and professional) baggage?  Once I framed it that way, the answer was simple.  I chose to be an adult.

And with that, here’s my first blog post with the Apple Music player.  The larger album art and longer duration was a bonus.  I’ll slowly retrofit older posts with this new widget.