Maybe It is now time to leave Digitally Imported for good. It occurs to me already a few years back after a lot of questionable choices.

There are a few things where I did close both eyes in hope that things will change for the better on DI.FM.

Logo from Wikipedia

I’m premium member since 2012. My first time contact with DI.FM was where I just had an 56k modem via landline. The free channels with a low bandwidth (AAC) gave me the possibility to hear all sorts of electornic style music. It was amazing! I could hear up-to-date music and surf or chat on the web without lagging.

All that time I had no problem in listening the free channels with ad blocks because I didn’t had the money. After a few years listening free I finally get premium. Bonus: It was a grandfather subscription so wanted to stay forever.

Since then I listened everyday. First only on Winamp then on my receiver and mobile phone.

So because of my history and amazing music I did close both eyes on every business decision DI.FM did take on the way. Hoping that all went well.

But since they put all the channels behind a premium and only rotate a few of them for free users a few days back I cannot stand behind this anymore. I see the free channels as a core value which is violated with this decision.

What did they also do wrong in my eyes? Don’t get me wrong here, I fully understand that a business needs to make money and search for ways to do it.

• Over 6 Years ago they killed the “grandafther price plan” which I was a part of. My understanding of a grandfather plan is a lifelong early supporter role. It sucked especially they hefty raise from 45 dollar to 80 euro (!) a year. Next year it was down to 70 but still in my eyes a dick move.

• Spotify was taking a big market share. And then came the change of the distribution of songs spotify-like where you can skip the current song and go to the next. I did not like that at all because I want a radio where I don’t can skip things. If I get the choice to skip songs I only hear a few seconds of them and get sucked into skipping song after song. It also killed the chatting and discussing a song with friends who simultaneously listened the same channel.

• The disappearance of the forums. I was not an active user but I enjoyed reading through all the threads and getting new input from songs I liked which was discussed on the forums by the community. Especially on some dj mixes where I cannot find the tracklist the forums was always a big source of information.

• Very old songs getting repeated and a far few new ones are played. Of course it is dependent on the curator of the channel. But it is happening on all of my favorite channel. Coincedence?

• Live shows are great. But they feel a lot like they only get rebroadcasted from spotify; apple music or other sources. It does not help that DJs are thanking spotify listeners while hearing it on Di.FM.

• All of this feels like a general stagnation for years now. I cannot see anything done to attract artists to use Digitally Imported as a plattform like in the old days.

Of course I don’t now what the reality behind the scene is. They are all points from a user perspective.

All of this seen as single points is certainly not an issue but together and with the high price tag for me it is the reason I’m already looking for alternatives which are not spotify. You can argument that for the price you can access the other music genre portals (rock, metal, jazz etc.) as well. But I’m not using that and don’t want to. If I can I would subscribe to single channels for way less which I do now every year and already be happy.

Maybe it is time to quit my subscription and try other alternatives. No and I don’t mean spotify. Did try that in high hopes but it sucked ass. It does not even came close to DI.FM.

Even If I leave I will leave the nice “DI.FM” sticker on my receiver :)