I have used Spotify for the past 5 years. Yesterday came the day to end it.

For some time I was thinking about an RSS feed. There are a number of apps that offer this. It allows you to bring the sources you want and create a feed from them. Same as social media was before the endless scrolling became the norm. You can add social media profiles, magazines, and long-form content.

By solving one of your problems you often notice you can solve another one. The same happened here. 

As I have opened Spotify, I saw the recommendations. They have become noticeably worse. Podcasts with clickbait titles everywhere. I tried fixing the algorithm by noting most of their recommendations as “not interested," but it did not make a difference. Every time I would go back, the same videos would show up. Day after day: Here, Tarik, you will like this. I will not, stop shoving them down my throat.

Spotify algorithm five years ago did not do much, especially with the podcasts. It was like an RSS feed. That was fine; I did not need a bomb out of an algorithm. Now that it is here, I expect it to perform, or that I have control over it.

The positive side of all of this - you can add most of the podcasts to an RSS feed.