Nestle (as of last year’s financial returns) owns 20% of L’Oreal (L’Oreal details on last share sale, Nestle statement of its relationship with L’Oreal). They reduced their holdings a couple of years ago (down from 23%) but at 20% they’re still one of the more significant L’Oreal shareholders (though not the largest at L’Oreal).

The Nestle boycott wasn’t founded due to exploitation of employees, unions, etc. They’re shitty and do all that stuff (and far more). But the boycott was specifically founded (in the 1970s) due to their decision to relentlessly market baby formula to vulnerable mothers, particularly in less developed countries, often in times of famine or hardship. They knowingly caused health problems in infants (who of course then grew into adults with health problems), probably caused many infant deaths, and pushed families into poverty (with all the consequences of that), for profit. 50 years later we’re still dealing with the consequences of their immoral marketing (which has never really stopped, they just change the messaging in order to comply with relevant laws, which are too weak).

I’d boycott them just for that, but they’re also the corporation who in both U.S. and European hearings has argued that water isn’t a human right and pushed to privatise community resources, at a time when water scarcity is one of the main long-term threats to many countries, including the U.S. and many European countries.

Other companies do this stuff too, but generally speaking they’ve done it for less time and are less brazen about it.

Maybe stop eating shampoo then. (= They partly own L’Oréal, and by extension all the L’Oréal brands: Garnier, Maybelline, Vichy, Biotherm, etc.)

To your actual point though: A) that depends on which country you live in, given that their products are manufactured differently in each country/region. B) it does also depend on what brand you’re referring to. I find it highly unlikely you dislike EVERYTHING in the Nestle machine. Hot Pockets? Perrier water? Nerds? Smarties??

I get most my news via the MPU (Mac Power Users) forum. If it’s important/interesting enough, someone will start a thread.

Apple Music, but not for any reason. Just because I use Apple devices and I’ve never given it any thought.

As others have mentioned, I’ve not had an issue with the Apple recommendations, especially when it comes to “stations” - I think it does a good job of recommending similar artists, and I like it (but I’ve not used Spotify so don’t know if they’re better at it, or what better might look like).

Just a reminder, Apple’s Lossless tech doesn’t work over Bluetooth (that’s a Bluetooth limitation not an Apple limitation) so if for example your regular speakers are connected via Bluetooth then Apple’s Lossless isn’t a good reason to move services since you won’t experience it most the time anyway.

I would factor your primary device into your choice. I mostly control music via my iPhone, and the iOS music app is fine for that. Apple Music is… not ideal… on Mac, and if I used that as my primary controller I suspect I’d shop around for a better service. As an example of two baffling things that irritate me:

1. Playlists are listed in a different order on Mac compared to iOS. There is no reason for this except that Apple is careless.
2. Mac Apple Music sometimes throws a tantrum after e.g. a Zoom meeting and will refuse to produce any audio until you’ve closed and reopened the app. It does it with YouTube as well (e.g. you pause music to play a video, but when you unpause the music afterwards it won’t play). It’s erratic and has been reported elsewhere and is annoying.