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Spotify Form F-1

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Re: Spotify Form F-1

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other side of this, I love how easy it is to find new music on Spotify! Every week, the "Discover Weekly" playlist nets me at least one or two new artists I end up loving.

If you ever get tired of Discover Weekly give JQBX[1] a try. I built it so that I could bust out of the same old genres Spotify tends to re-suggest every week. [1] https://www.jqbx.fm

This is neat! It's cool how powerful Spotify's API is.

I built Amplitude [1], which uses Spotify's recommendations API to create artist based discovery playlists, if you need more new music than Discover Weekly provides and also Rediscover [2], to save your discover weekly playlists so you don't lose songs.

[1] https://amplitudeapp.com/

[2] https://rediscover.rile.yt/

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#62
I only left Spotify for Youtube Red/Google Music. It was not an easy decision because they have the best music selection and discover imo. They should acquire pandora and then I think they could dominate this space.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#63

I want Spotify to do well, but the reason I'm cautious is the lack of true differentiation. Spotify has a great platform, but I'd worry about the level of control that the labels and artists have over their catalog, and the fact that they make a lot of money as a middleman between consumers and artists... I just feel like I could see another company coming and eating their lunch relatively easily. They're not like Ne…

Their competitive advantage is discovery and algorithmic playlists. For my part at least, what got me onto spotify was the large library but what keeps me using it is the discover weekly playlist.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I'm a Spotify lifer unless something catastrophic happens to their service or media availability. The only alternative service I even debated about was Apple Music when they first announced their streaming service, but there is no clear advantage to their service and I hate the Apple Music UI. I hope they find a way to help a bigger % of the revenue get into the hands of artists and start cutting out the big re…

disclaimer : I worked for a music streaming service for several years I don't really like the Play Music UI (but I don't hate it either, the new parts are very nice, but the album pages could use a bit more love). I dislike the spotify UI though (why is it THAT dark and depressive ?) and play music removes the ads from youtube (us user) and pays youtubers, so that's an easy choice. Oh, the winning feature of Play Mus…

You listed the killer features of Google Music for me: no Youtube ads, auto-pay my favorite Youtubers, and upload my own albums.

Also the Youtube Music app.

I've found their catalog to be really complete, I've rarely not been able to find something specific I'm looking for.

Only advantage I'm hearing from Spotify music users is that the algorithmic selections sound really good. Meh, I put in about an hour a month of surfing different Play Music radio stations and recommendations. Works for me.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#65

A brilliant CEO in Elk and an unfortunate industry. It will be interesting to see how they face marginalization. The risk factors of Apple being able to retain 100% of their revenue while Spotify being forced to give away 30% back to Apple is kind of sad. It really does feel like there's continuously diminishing opportunities for companies to get in front of consumers without facing some sort of platform tax.

Spotify stopped using in-app subscriptions in their iOS app. I'd love to see the numbers comparing user growth rate vs cost caused by the in-app subscriptions, that led them to their decision.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#66
post #18

They've gone from 28 million to 71 million premium subscribers in 3 years with a declining, single digit, churn rate. I'm impressed. I'm a happy Spotify customer, I hope they continue their growth and become a pillar of the music industry.

I was a Spotify lifer until I butted up against their 10,000 song limit. [1]

Now, I'm using Google Play Music. There's no doubt in my mind that everything else outside of this limit is better on Spotify.

Please, Spotify, fix this! Let me help inflate your valuation!

1. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/Library-Song-Limit...

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#67
I wonder if Spotify will become a music label for the same reasons that Netflix has been making their own shows? Spotify could be severely damaged if only a few labels were to pull their content.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#68
post #54

I remember reading how Spotify charges ~equal to Netflix, and their expenses will likely be much lower due to not needing to fund 'originals' and all. While Netflix's originals also offer a distinct advantage over their competitors and increases the cost of switching, Spotify will likely have a very profitable future as a company, and I'm curious to see if their market cap will ever approach that of Netflix.

I was thinking that Spotify would actually need to go in the Netflix direction and have the music equivalent of "originals" (that is, signing artists and having their own label) because otherwise record companies would try to spin off their own services and take their content with them (which has happened in video streaming), or the moment Spotify gets too profitable they'll see an opportunity to increase content prices since they know Spotify can afford it.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I'm a Spotify lifer unless something catastrophic happens to their service or media availability. The only alternative service I even debated about was Apple Music when they first announced their streaming service, but there is no clear advantage to their service and I hate the Apple Music UI. I hope they find a way to help a bigger % of the revenue get into the hands of artists and start cutting out the big re…

disclaimer : I worked for a music streaming service for several years I don't really like the Play Music UI (but I don't hate it either, the new parts are very nice, but the album pages could use a bit more love). I dislike the spotify UI though (why is it THAT dark and depressive ?) and play music removes the ads from youtube (us user) and pays youtubers, so that's an easy choice. Oh, the winning feature of Play Mus…

> I dislike the spotify UI though (why is it THAT dark and depressive ?) and play music removes the ads from youtube (us user) and pays youtubers, so that's an easy choice.

I am also not a fan of Spotify's UI. I've tried in order, Spotify, GPM, and am now on AM. I may try Spotify again, since my first try was a few years ago and I didn't care for the UI and became annoyed after I built a playlist and half the songs disappeared one day (rights issue I guess).

GPM is a great deal because it also includes YouTube Red and YouTube music if that's your thing.

You can also get a deal on AM if you buy for the year for $99 and use an iTunes gift card that you can usually find for ~$80.

The AM UI is not the best, but since I'm on iOS, the integration is nice.

Re: Spotify Form F-1

#70

I wonder if Spotify will become a music label for the same reasons that Netflix has been making their own shows? Spotify could be severely damaged if only a few labels were to pull their content.

Spotify would be severely damaged if any major label pulled their content. That’s very different from Netflix.
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