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Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

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211–220 of 232 posts

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#211
post #107

Spotify waste so much money on their employees, who effectively do very little. I know a designer who has been there 2 years, basically sits in meetings and gets sent to different countries, and has added nothing to their portfolio. Yet gets reviews and raises and bonuses... Then there's all the parties they host for their employees, etc. It's not a company I would invest in if I had any money to begin with. Also tha…

I've always been very put off by their rah rah support for Agile. In many ways, I think Spotify cargo cults on the Netflix culture document, but they don't actually have a tech culture identity that they've created for themselves, they just make a big fuss about Agile, oppressive open-plan spaces, and fancy parties. I think Spotify is a great example of why job candidates should look before they leap when it comes to…

> the mixture of status signalling open-plan office + needless opulence + Agile strongly suggests dysfunction

I shuddered a bit when I read this. I worked at Audible - another successful audio media company - for four years, and you just perfectly described the dysfunctional scenario I witnessed while there. Couldn't have described it better myself.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#212

Maybe they should have added an Apple Watch app when the watch was released. I've paid for premium for over 2 years but switched when I got my watch because there was no app for Spotify (only third party apps that don't support offline listening and don't integrate very well either). Anyways, I'm now glad to have switch to Apple Music because they seem to have more content (at least more content I like) and their rad…

I find it a stretch to believe that any of Spotify's problems can be put down to the lack of an Apple Watch app.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#213
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty solid is a bit of an exaggeration in my case. About once a day, my MacBook's fans start spinning like crazy. By now I know... oh, it's "Spotify Helper" stuck in a loop again, lemme force quit it. Before I reinstalled, instead Spotify would show me "there's a new version!" every single day, seemingly without upgrading anything. These serious quality issues, plus the horrifying visual ads (for playlists and new…

* I use PC, which runs it flawlessly. * I pay for my streaming music which has no ads so I don't get a freebie AND complain about advertisements (really man...?)

Nice that it works well on PC for you!

Yeah, I'm a paying Spotify customer and have been for years. You misunderstand which ads I'm talking about.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#214
post #56

Spotify waste so much money on their employees, who effectively do very little. I know a designer who has been there 2 years, basically sits in meetings and gets sent to different countries, and has added nothing to their portfolio. Yet gets reviews and raises and bonuses... Then there's all the parties they host for their employees, etc. It's not a company I would invest in if I had any money to begin with. Also tha…

The modern desktop app is at a point where it's pretty solid, but I still miss that old 0.80.x branch or whatever the final non-chromium verison was. But you know what? Google doesn't have a desktop app for Google Music. Amazon doesn't have a desktop app for Amazon Prime. Apple doesn't have a desktop version... so yeah, despite the fact that Spotify's only-one-in-the-business desktop app isn't perfect, it does exist.…

Just be happy your getting updates! http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/spotify-linux-no-developm...

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who buys a lot of music, this attitude seems very alien to me - 10 bucks for a very large collection? It's an insane deal - so good that hardly any artist can live off it. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a fan of streaming services and prefer to own my music (a large part of which isn't available for streaming anyway) but for most people this is an incredibly fair deal.

yes, but it depends on your listening habits. I am oddly fine just listening to the music I own, and buying some more every now and then, so I spend significantly less than 10$/m now. Would be interesting to try a streaming service, but it would be a good deal more expensive for me. Anyway, maybe I should try one of the free offers. :-)

I was like this before spotify, but once you can try lots of new music, I bet you'll find a bunch you like.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#216
post #79

Why would Spotify need $1B? Is most of this money used to license content?

> ... [out of] €1.08bn of revenues, €882.5m (£636m) was spent on royalties and distribution costs. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/11/spotify-fi...

Are they prepaying the royalties? Or subsidising?

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#217
post #117
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The modern desktop app is at a point where it's pretty solid, but I still miss that old 0.80.x branch or whatever the final non-chromium verison was. But you know what? Google doesn't have a desktop app for Google Music. Amazon doesn't have a desktop app for Amazon Prime. Apple doesn't have a desktop version... so yeah, despite the fact that Spotify's only-one-in-the-business desktop app isn't perfect, it does exist.…

Pretty solid is a bit of an exaggeration in my case. About once a day, my MacBook's fans start spinning like crazy. By now I know... oh, it's "Spotify Helper" stuck in a loop again, lemme force quit it. Before I reinstalled, instead Spotify would show me "there's a new version!" every single day, seemingly without upgrading anything. These serious quality issues, plus the horrifying visual ads (for playlists and new…

>plus the horrifying visual ads (for playlists and new albums) make Spotify a product I kind of love to hate

You mean in Browse, where you go to discover new music? Is there a streaming service that doesn't have a Browse section with recommended playlists/albums/etc?

It's not like they're advertising Dove soap or Coca Cola, they're showing you new music.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#218
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* I use PC, which runs it flawlessly. * I pay for my streaming music which has no ads so I don't get a freebie AND complain about advertisements (really man...?)

Nice that it works well on PC for you! Yeah, I'm a paying Spotify customer and have been for years. You misunderstand which ads I'm talking about.

I guess I do misunderstand which ads I'm talking about since I have an ad-free experience.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#219
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty solid is a bit of an exaggeration in my case. About once a day, my MacBook's fans start spinning like crazy. By now I know... oh, it's "Spotify Helper" stuck in a loop again, lemme force quit it. Before I reinstalled, instead Spotify would show me "there's a new version!" every single day, seemingly without upgrading anything. These serious quality issues, plus the horrifying visual ads (for playlists and new…

>plus the horrifying visual ads (for playlists and new albums) make Spotify a product I kind of love to hate You mean in Browse, where you go to discover new music? Is there a streaming service that doesn't have a Browse section with recommended playlists/albums/etc? It's not like they're advertising Dove soap or Coca Cola, they're showing you new music.

I'm not saying Spotify is a morally bad company for showing these things. It's just my personal taste that creates my own idiosyncratic revulsion... mostly with the advertised playlists.

"No need to stress out. Stay relaxed with these easy, upbeat songs."

"Soul. It's about feeling. It's about authenticity."

"Coffee table jazz. Relax to the sound of jazz."

"Chill hits. New and hot hits for your chill moments."

I'm just saying, like, my preferred Emacs-based music player (Bongo) never shows this kind of inane, awful, soul-crushing babble.

Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music

#220
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice that it works well on PC for you! Yeah, I'm a paying Spotify customer and have been for years. You misunderstand which ads I'm talking about.

I guess I do misunderstand which ads I'm talking about since I have an ad-free experience.

I mean this stuff: http://i.imgur.com/qb36KVA.png
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