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Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

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Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not because I don't want to pay for the content, I'd happily pay 2-3x under the right circumstances. It's because no one wants to take my money and provide the content I want without bundling it with drm, ads, dark patterns, insane region segmentation. Can't help you with movies/Netflix, but in the case of Spotify, you could go back to buying mp3's. Google Play, Amazon, iTunes (aac format), etc will all sell y…

mp3s are compressed and lossy. Makes them unsuitable for buying. There are a few sites like bandcamp that sell flacs. Not sure why the big players don't let you buy flacs. It's not like there's an engineering issue. Maybe they get the rights only for lossy files. Edit: Since some will invariably point out that you can't hear flacs, here's a better argument. Even if you prefer lossy music, there are and will be better…

Then buy the CDs as if you can probably tell the difference. You're just making excuses for not wanting to pay.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mp3s are compressed and lossy. Makes them unsuitable for buying. There are a few sites like bandcamp that sell flacs. Not sure why the big players don't let you buy flacs. It's not like there's an engineering issue. Maybe they get the rights only for lossy files. Edit: Since some will invariably point out that you can't hear flacs, here's a better argument. Even if you prefer lossy music, there are and will be better…

Spotify isn't streaming FLACs either.

And you're not paying $1/track for Spotify.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#134
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Radio stations at least around the midwest here in the US only seem to play ~20 different songs, and it gets really repetitive, really fast, just ask anybody working retail. Plus the genre's are rather limited, it's usually one or two pop stations (with 90% song overlap), one or two country, maybe NPR or something in a podcast format, etc. Meanwhile all of the ads. Personally I'm on the student plan, and for what I l…

Most radio stations are crap, but the world is a huge place. Listen to say WFMU out of NYC and you will hear a very wide selection of odd stuff.

And most of that odd stuff is also crap. I value the ability to discover music that is relevant to my tastes.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not because I don't want to pay for the content, I'd happily pay 2-3x under the right circumstances. It's because no one wants to take my money and provide the content I want without bundling it with drm, ads, dark patterns, insane region segmentation. Can't help you with movies/Netflix, but in the case of Spotify, you could go back to buying mp3's. Google Play, Amazon, iTunes (aac format), etc will all sell y…

mp3s are compressed and lossy. Makes them unsuitable for buying. There are a few sites like bandcamp that sell flacs. Not sure why the big players don't let you buy flacs. It's not like there's an engineering issue. Maybe they get the rights only for lossy files. Edit: Since some will invariably point out that you can't hear flacs, here's a better argument. Even if you prefer lossy music, there are and will be better…

Doesn’t Tidal offer very high quality streams?

As for iTunes, don’t they sell in high bitrate AAC? It is very hard to hear a difference in the vast majority of music between a high bitrate AAC and an uncompressed file.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#136
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that's for paid accounts? I'm using it right now on a browser with no ad blocker and I don't get ads.

I don't understand your question. If you pay, they don't serve you ads, no?

OP was asking if it was limited to the free version, and your answer seemed to imply that the web player served ads for all versions, since it didn't specify the account type. If that wasn't the implication, then my question is no longer valid.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#137
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's a free service. They have no reason to care about users, who block ads and don't intend to ever become paying customers.

It's purely hubris. They clearly don't understand the nature of the beast.

A non-paying customer who doesn't listen to ads has absolutely zero value to Spotify. Why shouldn't they block them?

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why don’t you pay for a subscription? If you keep listening to Spotify, surely it brings you value. I know I’m getting value from it. I listen to music all day at work and personally I don’t have many services that I use so often.

So the reason for that has more to do with my corporate firewall than anything. I do pay for subscription services that I enjoy more than Spotify (currently, Google Play Music and Tidal). However, I cannot have a phone at work, so I can't log into GPM (2FA requires the phone), and Tidal is blocked for other reasons. So that basically just leaves Spotify. I don't want to pay for a third subscription service that I onl…

I really like google’s music offering, but I the only reason I don’t subscribe is because I listen to music on my work box, and I refuse to sign into Google on it with my personal account

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#139
post #31

Considering how services like Spotify and Apple Music incourage extra data usage, and randomally delete music as they see fit, I'm finding myself thinking more and more of these services as discovery tools (akin to radio) and less like media players (they aren't). One day very soon I'll be playing all my music in something else entirely again. While it's impossible to brush off the value of streaming services like Sp…

We had better in MP3s but the industry didn't like it. Personally, if you don't own the content I don't think you can whine when it goes away.

You can still buy and download MP3s of pretty much anything through Amazon Prime Music.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why don’t you pay for a subscription? If you keep listening to Spotify, surely it brings you value. I know I’m getting value from it. I listen to music all day at work and personally I don’t have many services that I use so often.

Because you already pay with your time and attention when they play ads. Why should you pay for a subscription?

Premium doesn't have any of those ads. And if you're blocking their ads you're not paying with time and attention. Spotify seems pretty reasonable to me, it's free with ads or you can pay for a better product with no ads.
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