Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by bentlegen » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 8:23 PM UTC

deepakg wrote: post #120

bentlegen wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was an Rdio subscriber from 2010 until it shut down, and I've been a Spotify subscriber since. I can name a few things: 1) Discovery. Rdio would inform me when new albums are out by artists I listen to. Spotify doesn't. Rdio's "Artist Stations" were also much better – not only did they not repeat (like Spotify's do), they also let you choose whether you wanted to hear "more" or "less" of the artist themselves while…

> Rdio would inform me when new albums are out by artists I listen to. Spotify doesn't. Spotify does, but you need to follow the artist from the artist page. I get a push a notification on the iPhone and a notification on the Mac desktop app. That said, sometimes an album being out doesn't necessarily mean it being available on Spotify in your country.

That seems like an unnecessary amount of work. So I need to click through and follow the 100+ artists I'm a fan of?

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

#222

Post by bentlegen » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 8:25 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #130

bentlegen wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was an Rdio subscriber from 2010 until it shut down, and I've been a Spotify subscriber since. I can name a few things: 1) Discovery. Rdio would inform me when new albums are out by artists I listen to. Spotify doesn't. Rdio's "Artist Stations" were also much better – not only did they not repeat (like Spotify's do), they also let you choose whether you wanted to hear "more" or "less" of the artist themselves while…

Hmm. I get notifications for certain artists of new song releases; I'm not sure which ones and why though. deepakg suggests you get them if you follow artists, but the spotify client won't load the artists page for me at this time. I will say, at least for me, Spotify's "Discover Weekly" which is refreshed Sunday nights is amazing. I've saved at least 2 songs from it every week, and most weeks more than 2. If only th…

> I will say, at least for me, Spotify's "Discover Weekly" which is refreshed Sunday nights is amazing. I've saved at least 2 songs from it every week, and most weeks more than 2.

Rdio basically had a feature that created an "Rdio" station from what they called your "heavy rotation". It featured songs by artists that were similar.

To me, it was the equivalent of "Discover Weekly", except available at any time instead of once a week.

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

#223

Post by bentlegen » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 8:28 PM UTC

staticelf wrote: post #151

bentlegen wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was an Rdio subscriber from 2010 until it shut down, and I've been a Spotify subscriber since. I can name a few things: 1) Discovery. Rdio would inform me when new albums are out by artists I listen to. Spotify doesn't. Rdio's "Artist Stations" were also much better – not only did they not repeat (like Spotify's do), they also let you choose whether you wanted to hear "more" or "less" of the artist themselves while…

A key feature that made me switch from Rdio was that if I searched for an Artist I could not play it's most popular songs. It just played albums. All the features you listed is nothing compared to that basic functionality.

You could visit an artist, hit "play Rdio station" and it was basically equivalent. It always leaned towards hit songs.

Personally, I'm an album-centric listener so I preferred Rdio's music organization.

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

#224

Post by danieltillett » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 8:43 PM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #185

danieltillett wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason to think that this market is a winner take all? The labels will do anything to prevent another Apple arising including backing any upstart that wants to challenge the big players. When you are just a middle man it is hard to create a monopoly.

That entirely depends on how the power balance between content owners and streaming services develops. If labels deliberately protect themselves from a streaming monopoly by fostering competition via good deals for smaller competitors it might become a very balanced market. But if a dominant streaming service manages to press for better deals than smaller competitors, then it could be very much winner-takes-all (with…

I can’t see the labels being keen to let any one service get a monopoly as it risks them being played off against each other like Apple did to Sony a few years back. I do agree that the music industry is incredibly opaque and how really knows what is going on.

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

#225

Post by lolidaisuki » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 9:17 PM UTC

LoSboccacc wrote: post #138

p4wnc6 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More often, the person is just a token hire who functions more to ensure legal deniability on the company's part for anything that might pop up related to a diversity issue. I hope more companies hire diversity officers for the sake of thinking hard about how to ensure that policies and company behaviors aren't harmful. But for me it's a "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of thing. The default belief has to be that…

Yup. I've yet to see a diversity office having an actual budget and spending power.

I have two words for you: GNOME Foundation

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

#226

Post by hinkley » Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 12:35 AM UTC

dopamean wrote: post #203

Retric wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 80+% of your assets are in just one company you don't control then you really should be heading for the exits. Google quickly hit 6x there IPO, but if you had say 5 million at IPO and nothing else then selling 1 million of that would have been a really good idea. Or at least getting a put option to sell near the IPO price. Granted, you must pay taxes ect. But taking 20% off the top is generally a really good idea.

Who said 80% of any of the investors assets are in just one company?

My first rodeo, my existing options were worth about $40k on buyout day. That's chump change, even counting inflation, but I was a kid so that more than doubled my assets. Everybody was pretty happy. Five months later we were all almost under water, and half our raises were more stock options (I don't know what kind of psychadelic drugs come up with that plan). Nobody was happy and productivity tanked. And still we were doing a better job than our new masters. By the end of the lockup period our options were worth 60% of the strike price.

In the end I learned the hard way about a bizarre strategy for keeping your company going. First, have a high valuation. Second, find a small company with liquid assets. Third, buy out the company with a stock swap and only a little cash. And now you have more capital on hand so you can lie to your investors for a few extra months.

Not that I'm bitter.

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

#227

Post by usrusr » Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 10:50 AM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #224

usrusr wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That entirely depends on how the power balance between content owners and streaming services develops. If labels deliberately protect themselves from a streaming monopoly by fostering competition via good deals for smaller competitors it might become a very balanced market. But if a dominant streaming service manages to press for better deals than smaller competitors, then it could be very much winner-takes-all (with…

I can’t see the labels being keen to let any one service get a monopoly as it risks them being played off against each other like Apple did to Sony a few years back. I do agree that the music industry is incredibly opaque and how really knows what is going on.

How could a streaming monopolist play content monopolists? There is only one place to call if you want to license a given artist and fans will tell you that you can't substitute one rapper with a different one. The music business is more about identity than about chords and rhythms. "Sorry, no hits for your search term The Beatles, but try this nice, barely used Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, you will like it because it is also old and by a famous person with a funny haircut", that won't work.

Only independent labels without established names, who need the exposure from streaming as much as they need the money would suffer from a streaming monopoly.

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

#228

Post by criley2 » Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 4:35 PM UTC

mbrock wrote: post #220

criley2 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That is called "Content".

Hilariously, this exact website could not stop fawning over Apple Music's nearly identical curated, editor-created or automatically generated content.

Personally, I love the Spotify curated content.

I listen to my Discover Weekly every single Monday and very often choose one of their regularly changing playlists when I'm not listening to my own lists.

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

#229

Post by mbrock » Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 8:15 PM UTC

criley2 wrote: post #228

mbrock wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That is called "Content". Hilariously, this exact website could not stop fawning over Apple Music's nearly identical curated, editor-created or automatically generated content. Personally, I love the Spotify curated content. I listen to my Discover Weekly every single Monday and very often choose one of their regularly changing playlists when I'm not listening to my own lists.

I don't claim to represent this website and I didn't fawn for a second over Apple Music...

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

#230

Post by criley2 » Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 9:51 PM UTC

mbrock wrote: post #229

criley2 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is called "Content". Hilariously, this exact website could not stop fawning over Apple Music's nearly identical curated, editor-created or automatically generated content. Personally, I love the Spotify curated content. I listen to my Discover Weekly every single Monday and very often choose one of their regularly changing playlists when I'm not listening to my own lists.

I don't claim to represent this website and I didn't fawn for a second over Apple Music...

If we're playing the "who claimed what game" then I didn't claim you represented this website nor did I claim you fawned over Apple Music.

I was providing what I found to be humorous context regarding the content you derided as advertisement (I'm a bit surprised that curated channels of music are ads to you, do you think that television "Channels" are advertisements for television content too ??)