Am I a Bad Person if I Use Spotify? Mailbag

This month we dive into questions about musical fraud, how to write a song, my favorite musicals, and so much more.

Welcome back to another edition of Can’t Get Much Higher’s mailbag, the newsletter where I answer your questions. This month we dive into inquiries about the VMAs, b-benders, weird trends of the 1960s, and if it’s unethical to use Spotify.

If you enjoy this newsletter, it would really mean a lot to be if you consider ordering a copy of my debut book, Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. It’s a data-driven history of popular music covering 1958 to 2025. I spent 8 years trying to get this book published, and I’ll only get a chance to write another if people buy this one.

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Several artists are pulling their music from Spotify in protest of CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in an AI-powered military tech firm. Is it a political protest or is a matter of money? Are Apple music or Amazon music much better for the artists? I'm a Spotify subscriber with lots of moral doubts and now there is also a new price increase for the family plan. - Beatrice