Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 266 posts

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#211

Post by pyre »

bmelton wrote: post #185
tomclancy wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had Google Music for 6 months and, while their music selection is great, their UI is horrendous. For example if I'm scrolling through an artists albums, they would list every release of an album (European release, NA release, Japan release, extended version, radio friendly, non-radio friendly). Maybe that's nice for some? It was just a hassle for me. Overall navigation through the app I found to be really, really b…

I've never noticed that myself, but if you say it's a feature, I'll believe you, and applaud Google for doing it that way. As different album releases often contain different recordings, sometimes finding EXACTLY the song I want to hear is hard to do. Having fallen for Sublime when they were still playing live shows, but knowing that they were only able to capitalize on their fame after the death of their singer, the…

On the other hand, some people don't care about the several slightly different recordings or remixes of "Santeria" and just want to listen to Sublime? A good UI would allow for both rather than just point the firehose of information at the user.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#212

Post by thirdsun »

jeremyrwelch wrote: post #116

Rdio made a mistake by trying to compete directly with Spotify. And Pandora is making a huge mistake by shutting down the service and losing a valuable niche group of users. Everyone I know who actually uses Rdio is DIE HARD (I see evidence of this in the comments too). The users I know are pro audio guys, musicians, programmers, artists, etc who use the app 6+ hours a day across desktop and mobile. Rdio could easily…

This is my impression too - and as a rdio subscriber myself, I also have annecdotal evidence: I maintain a huge offline library of losslessly bought music and that will never be replaced by a streamign service. Still, I love rdio as a preview, discovery and social hub - the people I interacted with there are all very similar: Audiophiles, with deep knowledge about music, digital crate diggers. Most, including me, still buy everything they like. Rdio has always been the service for true music enthusiasts in my mind and, frankly, I don't know where to go from here - I tried most other services at some point and have been pretty disappointed with their superficial approach to discovery and social features.

Just now I tried Spotify again and I don't like it all: No album focus, no label focus. Social features via Facebook? Meh.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#213

Post by pyre »

austenallred wrote: post #168
qq66 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that the labels own Spotify -- it's that by issuing limited-term licensing deals, and owning all of the music, they'll be able to charge whatever they want for their music, leaving just a little bit on the table to keep Spotify in business. Spotify reports $100m in profit? Just raise licensing fees by $90m at the next contract. Spotify won't have the leverage to walk away. Similar to Netflix, Spotify will ne…

For every $1,000 in music sold the artist gets average musician gets $23.40 https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

This doesn't mean that the studios are leaving a big cut to Spotify, it just means that the artists aren't getting much.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#214

Post by thirdsun »

vlunkr wrote: post #39
disposition2 wrote: post #31

As someone who switched to Rdio from Spotify because the former has not terrible music discovery, this is unfortunate. Looks like I'll be switching again...it would be nice to find a streaming service that was about music discovery rather than forcing the latest garbage down your throat. Although who knows, maybe Spotify's radio now plays more than 10 songs...

Spotify now has a playlist called discover weekly or something that is songs they pick for you once a week, and in my experience it's actually pretty good. I've discovered several artists that way. And I also found Spotify radio to be awful.

Frankly, that doesn't sound appealing at all as a discovery tool - unless I know I like the curator's taste, I'm probably not interested in his recommendations.

That's why the heavy rotation section in rdio that only showed popular music among your friends (which you should select carefully!) was so useful - if you had a circle of great tastemakers.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#215

Post by junto »

mbesto wrote: post #159
rekoros wrote: post #151

I was one of Rdio's first employees (3rd) and have been a happy subscriber since Craig got billing to work. After FB employees got free Rdio, they gave Rdio employees free Rdio as well, but I kept paying—to retain the right to bitch. (I got a free account for my wife though.) My entire extended family have been paying for and swearing by Rdio for years. I was introduced to Erlang at Rdio (this shaped the future of my…

> "Are we really going to start using Spotify after so many years of hating on it?" —our 15-year-old. Genuinely curious here - why are so many techies desperately passionate (both positive and negative) about choice of unseemly unnecessary tech products? I feel like there is this peculiar subculture of tech-minded folk who defend at odds their tech choices. "Slack is the best" "Hell no, IRC has been around for years!…

It is basic human nature to polarise into distinct communities and take sides. Look at football teams. They wear different colours, have minor differences in ethoses but both play more or less the same game of football. Slack versus IRC is the same concept.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#216

Post by rtpg »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #210
mbesto wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Are we really going to start using Spotify after so many years of hating on it?" —our 15-year-old. Genuinely curious here - why are so many techies desperately passionate (both positive and negative) about choice of unseemly unnecessary tech products? I feel like there is this peculiar subculture of tech-minded folk who defend at odds their tech choices. "Slack is the best" "Hell no, IRC has been around for years!…

You have to keep in mind that this is a kind of game. Almost no one truly, really hates the other product. People don't get into fistfights over Vim vs. Emacs. It's just a community joke. So for instance I'm in the IRC camp of group communication, and I'll go to great length to use it over Slack, but if you really need me to use Slack and it makes sense, then I'll use Slack. But I will be doing cynical jokes so that…

>People don't get into fistfights over Vim vs. Emacs. It's just a community joke.

Unfortunately, this can get out of hand, see systemd death threats. Hope people will learn to be nicer on the internet now that the general population is on it.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#217

Post by spyder »

pyre wrote: post #209
lemevi wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This probably also explains why it's so hard to find a good editor. So many devs are totally unwilling to pay a decent amount for anything. Maybe the exception being hosting. Outside of hosting a server and dns and an SSL cert, it's hard to get engineers making 6 figures to spend more than $50 on a tool they use every day of their working life. Intellij recently switched to a new plan that adds up to like $15 to $10…

> it's hard to get engineers making 6 figures to spend more than $50 on a tool they use every day of their working life. On the flip-side, why invest all of your time become accustomed (possibly married) to an ecosystem that is beholden to someone else? Just because you spend $100 on VisualStudio doesn't mean that MS will take your input to heart when some manager "on high" decides to change direction with the produc…

Depends on what are the alternatives: if there is an open alternative with the same features for free then sure use it, but if there is no alternative with the features you need then you have to invest your time/money to build that feature and very likely it's more time/money than to buy and learn an ecosystem.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#218

Post by paublyrne »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #210
mbesto wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Are we really going to start using Spotify after so many years of hating on it?" —our 15-year-old. Genuinely curious here - why are so many techies desperately passionate (both positive and negative) about choice of unseemly unnecessary tech products? I feel like there is this peculiar subculture of tech-minded folk who defend at odds their tech choices. "Slack is the best" "Hell no, IRC has been around for years!…

You have to keep in mind that this is a kind of game. Almost no one truly, really hates the other product. People don't get into fistfights over Vim vs. Emacs. It's just a community joke. So for instance I'm in the IRC camp of group communication, and I'll go to great length to use it over Slack, but if you really need me to use Slack and it makes sense, then I'll use Slack. But I will be doing cynical jokes so that…

People do get into fistfights over sporting rivalries, though, not to mention religious ones.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#219

Post by TeMPOraL »

paublyrne wrote: post #218
TeMPOraL wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to keep in mind that this is a kind of game. Almost no one truly, really hates the other product. People don't get into fistfights over Vim vs. Emacs. It's just a community joke. So for instance I'm in the IRC camp of group communication, and I'll go to great length to use it over Slack, but if you really need me to use Slack and it makes sense, then I'll use Slack. But I will be doing cynical jokes so that…

People do get into fistfights over sporting rivalries, though, not to mention religious ones.

I know. I just haven't seen this dynamic go that far in the tech sector yet.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#220

Post by paublyrne »

lemevi wrote: post #195
epa wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech generation grew up in a 'free' culture of internet: illegal downloads, open source, pro bono collaboration. Paying for something that is equally equivalent to something that was free for decades usually is a tough sell. This doesnt apply to all people.

This probably also explains why it's so hard to find a good editor. So many devs are totally unwilling to pay a decent amount for anything. Maybe the exception being hosting. Outside of hosting a server and dns and an SSL cert, it's hard to get engineers making 6 figures to spend more than $50 on a tool they use every day of their working life. Intellij recently switched to a new plan that adds up to like $15 to $10…

I disliked the IntelliJ move because I have a preference for owning over renting. Possibly because I grew up in a country with a preference for owning property and seeing rent as dead money, or because I grew up buying and collecting CDs and putting them into alphabetical order.

In this case, I am happy to pay for RubyMine. And happy to pay a little more if I want to update to the latest version. But I don't like the idea of only being able to use it this month as long as I've paid the rent.

Post reply on HN