For those experiencing an acute sense of déjà vu, this deal was announced in December 2017 and closed today.
Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
131–140 of 332 posts
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#132I remember feeling that way the first time I used Uber (in SF where getting a taxi was difficult and unreliable). A few taps on my phone and a car shows up to my exact location in 2 minutes?! And that's it? No calling dispatch and hoping they'd show up eventually (sometimes they didn't). No fumbling with cash or tip or anything. It was like magic.
A shame that uber and the whole gig economy is so shit, circumventing basic employment rights and both minimum and living wages. I mean I like the basic idea and I agree that the taxi business needed the disruption, but it's opened the gates to people working well below a living wage because there's nothing else. That is, there's plenty of people that are willing to work below minimum wage because it's the only thing…
Isn't this a case against minimum wage laws? Obviously people's paychecks need to be paid from somewhere. Not all business models are going to work when you have to pay $15 /hr. So in that case, no job gets created and the person who could have done the work gets no money.
By removing the artificial market controls, people can voluntarily choose to get paid less, and make something (which is better than nothing).
I think people that complain about Uber not providing "basic employment rights and both minimum and living wages" don't really know what it's like to be poor. Talk to an Uber driver sometime, they're grateful for the opportunity to make some cash on their own terms.
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
A shame that uber and the whole gig economy is so shit, circumventing basic employment rights and both minimum and living wages. I mean I like the basic idea and I agree that the taxi business needed the disruption, but it's opened the gates to people working well below a living wage because there's nothing else. That is, there's plenty of people that are willing to work below minimum wage because it's the only thing…
I don't understand this logic generally and in this case it makes even less sense. 10 years ago, Uber literally didn't exist. How, in any way, is Uber forcefully underpaying it's employees/contractors? People flocked to drive for Uber; where is the oppression here? This is the same "Walmart doesn't pay its workers and destroys local businesses argument". People work there, and people shop there. Walmart didn't make a…
I mean, if you're a libertarian that makes sense. If you're not then wonder about why things like minimum wage exists, surely if people are willing to work for less than minimum wage why stop them?
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#134That's gonna make it so much easier for apple to offer an EU "upload filter as a service" for music in the future...
Nice point, I was trying to guess what value could this have for apple.
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#135Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#136I once read in an article (that I unfortunately can't find right now) that the the worth of Shazam lies in the fact that it can recognise, which songs are trending. The value chain is approximately like this: 1)New song is released 2)It starts being "shazamed" by various people - it's becoming trendy 3)Large stores that differntiate themselves by being trendy want to play trendy songs first 4)They pay Shazam to tell…
The main bulk of their income is/was from affiliate income paid by Apple, hence the buy-out.
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#137I remember feeling that way the first time I used Uber (in SF where getting a taxi was difficult and unreliable). A few taps on my phone and a car shows up to my exact location in 2 minutes?! And that's it? No calling dispatch and hoping they'd show up eventually (sometimes they didn't). No fumbling with cash or tip or anything. It was like magic.
A shame that uber and the whole gig economy is so shit, circumventing basic employment rights and both minimum and living wages. I mean I like the basic idea and I agree that the taxi business needed the disruption, but it's opened the gates to people working well below a living wage because there's nothing else. That is, there's plenty of people that are willing to work below minimum wage because it's the only thing…
In Germany, I used an uber-like app, having the same tracking and reputational semantics, but it hailed actual taxis. very nice.
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#138On Snapchat, you can hold the camera screen and it starts to "Shazam" what songs are playing.
I wonder if Apple will allow them to keep this feature.
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
A shame that uber and the whole gig economy is so shit, circumventing basic employment rights and both minimum and living wages. I mean I like the basic idea and I agree that the taxi business needed the disruption, but it's opened the gates to people working well below a living wage because there's nothing else. That is, there's plenty of people that are willing to work below minimum wage because it's the only thing…
I don't understand this logic generally and in this case it makes even less sense. 10 years ago, Uber literally didn't exist. How, in any way, is Uber forcefully underpaying it's employees/contractors? People flocked to drive for Uber; where is the oppression here? This is the same "Walmart doesn't pay its workers and destroys local businesses argument". People work there, and people shop there. Walmart didn't make a…
In a completely free market, corporations are free to distort economic and labour policy so that poor unemployed people are desperate to get any job they can, regardless of how poorly it pays.
This is why minimum wage and other laws exist.
See also: race to the bottom.
Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't most commercials sold in 30-60 second blocks?
Yeah. So if you skipped 60 seconds on a 30 second commercial you'd cut into your program. Hence the identification requirement.
That's why TIVO (or whichever DVR company) had the skip 30 seconds button. If it was a 60, you hit it twice. However, they also sell 15 second blocks. Now, it's just fast forward at ludicrous speeds.