31–40 of 162 posts
I prefer DRM-free stores and musicians who release there.
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Can you elaborate on that? What are their losses?
184.5 MM € in 2015[0]. [0]: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-spotify-revenues-grow-80-pe...
Spotify has always talked about losses being expected, they want user growth at any cost.
http://www.recode.net/2016/5/23/11749122/spotify-losses-reve...
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My instincts feel that way, but Apple Music announced they crossed 20 million paid users in 12/2016, 40% of Spotify's 50+ million. Anecdotally, discover weekly is a tremendous hit. Makes you wish for functional public capital markets so we knew the real story.
Spotify has partnered with telecoms, newspapers, and others to provide bundled subscriptions -- inflating their "paid" subscriber amount. A good chunk of those 50m aren't paying $10/mo; they've expanded their partnerships (in part) to inflate that number.
I prefer DRM-free stores and musicians who release there.
DRM aside, one thing that Spotify seems to have done quite well is to integrate its service in to many other devices and services: Much like what Netflix has done for video. For many people, having their music collection readily available is quite valuable.
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I prefer the convenience of having access to an effectively unlimited music library, on demand, for a flat cost per month. I can see how it would be a fun hobby to curate your own collection, but for me it's really hard to beat services like Spotify, Steam, Netflix - DRM or not.
I buy in stores like Bandcamp which sell FLAC, and then encode in Opus for playback. Also, prospects of your collection evaporating because DRMed service could suddenly close down tomorrow don't sound good. Convenience or not, I prefer to back up what I paid for.
Only thing is that composing that playlist again would be a major hassle. I have a list of bands and artists, I guess I could spend a weekend going through discography lists by Wikipedia and other sources.
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Spotify has partnered with telecoms, newspapers, and others to provide bundled subscriptions -- inflating their "paid" subscriber amount. A good chunk of those 50m aren't paying $10/mo; they've expanded their partnerships (in part) to inflate that number.
Very interesting. Can you give me some pointers on what kind of partnerships they have?
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Access to scoops and leaks, which translate into articles that get page views, which translate into ad dollars, is an indirect way to pay off a journalist.
So by your logic they are 'bribing' the journalist and 'paying them off' by 'giving them a scoop'? Ergo - every decent news story amounts to 'bribery'? I think you bit your tongue on that one.
George Orwell's "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations" is the best filter to apply in these situations.
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Spotify has partnered with telecoms, newspapers, and others to provide bundled subscriptions -- inflating their "paid" subscriber amount. A good chunk of those 50m aren't paying $10/mo; they've expanded their partnerships (in part) to inflate that number.
Very interesting. Can you give me some pointers on what kind of partnerships they have?
Interestingly Apple did a similar thing with Telstra (the largest, formerly state owned carrier), with a year free on 1 year contracts.
That has now become more of a free trial sort of deal though: https://www.telstra.com.au/applemusic
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I buy in stores like Bandcamp which sell FLAC, and then encode in Opus for playback. Also, prospects of your collection evaporating because DRMed service could suddenly close down tomorrow don't sound good. Convenience or not, I prefer to back up what I paid for.
I'm fine with buying a service for conveniently listening to music by a list of artists I like. If Spotify goes bust, it's not like that music disappears: it will be available on other services (and in theory as traditional records, too). Only thing is that composing that playlist again would be a major hassle. I have a list of bands and artists, I guess I could spend a weekend going through discography lists by Wiki…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm fine with buying a service for conveniently listening to music by a list of artists I like. If Spotify goes bust, it's not like that music disappears: it will be available on other services (and in theory as traditional records, too). Only thing is that composing that playlist again would be a major hassle. I have a list of bands and artists, I guess I could spend a weekend going through discography lists by Wiki…
Yeah, it's is highly unlikely there will be no one that you can buy a similar service from in future, if Spotify goes away.