Why don't you buy Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music Premium instead of using SimpMusic?

This is not meant to be a clever question. I mean it literally.

From the outside, it should be easy to answer. Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music Premium are already polished, convenient, and mature. Their libraries are large, their products are stable, and for most people they are probably good enough. If someone still uses SimpMusic instead, the obvious assumption is that there must be some simple explanation, maybe price, maybe convenience, maybe just preference.

But I do not think I should pretend to know the answer on behalf of users.

I built SimpMusic, but that does not automatically give me insight into the real reasons people choose it. If anything, building a product can make it easier to tell yourself a flattering story. Founders like to explain usage through product decisions: maybe it is the UX, maybe it is speed, maybe it is openness, maybe it is some feature the big platforms do not have. Sometimes that is true. But often it is incomplete.

Users do not make decisions as neatly as builders describe them. They choose products through a mix of habit, cost sensitivity, regional constraints, convenience, trust, existing workflows, and sometimes reasons so mundane they never show up in product strategy documents. A user may prefer one app over another not because it is “better,” but because it fits the shape of their life more naturally.

That is why I do not want to turn this question into a product pitch.

I could list possible explanations. Maybe some people do not want another subscription. Maybe YouTube is already their default way of discovering and listening to music. Maybe premium streaming services solve a slightly different problem than the one these users actually have. Maybe people want more control. Maybe certain payment systems, pricing models, regional limitations, device constraints, or listening habits matter more than I realize.

All of those sound plausible. None of them should be treated as the answer without evidence.

So this post is really a request for evidence.

If you use SimpMusic instead of Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music Premium, I want to know why.

Not in the shallow “which feature do you want?” sense, but in the deeper behavioral sense. What is the real decision you are making? What makes SimpMusic feel more reasonable, more useful, or more aligned with how you already listen to music? What are the tradeoffs you are accepting, and what are the tradeoffs you are avoiding?

I am especially interested in answers beyond feature comparisons.

For example:

• Is it mainly about price?

• Is it about habit?

• Is it because YouTube already functions as your music library?

• Is it about access, region, or payment friction?

• Is it subscription fatigue?

• Is it about control, openness, or flexibility?

• Or is the real reason something else entirely?

I think this matters because the question is bigger than SimpMusic.

It is really a question about where mainstream music streaming still does not fit everyone as cleanly as we assume. On paper, premium streaming looks like a solved market. In practice, the continued existence of alternatives suggests the story is not finished. There is still some gap between what the dominant services offer and what a certain kind of user actually wants.

I do not want to guess where that gap is. I would rather ask directly.

So if you use SimpMusic instead of Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music Premium, tell me why. The honest answer is more useful to me than the flattering one.