The author could have probably shed a tad more light on why they feel music apps (spotify et al) are bad. I agree with them though - these apps are atrocious to use, and seem to be continually getting worse. Some of my ongoing complaints about spotify are the following:

* Offline mode still doesn't work properly, after literally years of development. If you lose connection while streaming and want to switch to your 'downloaded albums'? Nope, the app will hang on a blank screen or crash. As londoner, this means spotify basically doesn't work on the tube at all - again, _even in offline-mode_.

* App will generally blank screen, hang, or crash semi-regularly for no apparent reason at least a couple times a day.

* Audio quality is awful. The default is 96kbps, which I believe even the most untrained listening can hear the crumminess of.

* Tons of missing music, even from mainstream artists.

* UI makes it difficult to navigate playlists <-> artist <-> song <-> album, traversing the hierarchy of music associations

* UI prioritises pushing podcast & other unwanted commercial content at you, make it difficult to find what you want and navigate the library

Then you've got the scumminess of the company itself that you alluded to (not paying artists, toxic corporate politics, etc).