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FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

freeyourmusic.com

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Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other 3rd party apps can sync content for offline playback (eg. Overcast for podcasts) so I don't think there's any technical reason Spotify are not supporting it.

Does Overcast still support sync/offline playback from Apple Watch? I know it's been a bumpy feature that Marco has had trouble supporting due to API limitations and lack of demand/usage.

Yup. There was a version a few months ago that broke things but that got fixed after a few weeks.

I'm surprised to hear about the lack of usage though - Apple Watch support is the only reason I'm using Overcast.

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#182

I have been looking to move away from Spotify for a while now due to their lacklustre support for iOS devices. Is there a good comparison between Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music somewhere, especially in terms of their coverage?

I've been wanting to write about my experiences with the streaming services that I've tried (Spotify, Deezer, AM, YTM, Tidal...) so I guess this seems like a good opportunity. This was a bit long for just a comment so I'm sharing a pastebin. https://pastebin.com/KG5huAnn

Woah, I’ve been looking for a comparison like this for quite some time. Thank you

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#183

So the other day Spotify decided to block API access to SongShift [1], which used their API to transfer playlists to other services. By doing that, they removed a method which was valid under GDPR article 20 subsection 2 to transfer personal data directly from one controller to another. FreeYouMusic is using another process without cooperation or consent from Spotify, and doesn't include all personal data. I've been…

Please keep us updated

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scale should never be an excuse for poor customer service. Customer service is part and parcel of offering a service to customers. A failure to offer good customer service is a failure of your service, period.

Moreover, the obvious response when you see the poor company is in such distress from too many customers, is to do them a favor and stop being their darn pesky ol' service-wanting customer.

Exactly! Suck it up and accept that you just gave Facebook hundreds of dollars as a charitable donation and move on with your life.

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If companies weren't making millions or billions of dollars in pure profit, I'd be more inclined to agree with this line of thought. But their profit/cost ratios are high enough to offer more customer service than they currently are. And ultimately, it's not the customer's fault that the business is not working from a sustainable business model.

But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. I don't believe spotify is making millions or billions in pure profit. Their competitors are able to position their products as loss leaders. I agree some companies could do much better, Google is a massive example, but you still have to remember the scale. Read somewhere, If 0.1%…

> you'd need ~21k people working 8/hours to handle it each day.

That's Google's problem with their business model, not the customers'.

The customer, who has by definition purchased rights to the service in question (whether with the currency of their attention, their information, or their money), deserves the attention of a human - with the ability to fix problems that arise - when they have a problem with that service that the company's self-service or automated help can not solve.

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If companies weren't making millions or billions of dollars in pure profit, I'd be more inclined to agree with this line of thought. But their profit/cost ratios are high enough to offer more customer service than they currently are. And ultimately, it's not the customer's fault that the business is not working from a sustainable business model.

But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. I don't believe spotify is making millions or billions in pure profit. Their competitors are able to position their products as loss leaders. I agree some companies could do much better, Google is a massive example, but you still have to remember the scale. Read somewhere, If 0.1%…

I know of many people wishing to use or own a business like spotify. The barrier to entry is very high. Agreements with record companies being the biggest hurdle.

Without competitors, giving you any customer service is unnecessary if demand for the product is high.

Spend your money on a vpn.

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#187
post #34

I'm one of those speak with my wallet kind of people. So when I seen news of this yesterday I wrote into their support saying I was not pleased with it. Their response was some random canned response about how you can still export your data. I'm not a fan of lock in, and I'm even less thrilled about not actually responding to my actual questions and instead giving me some canned BS. I responded back telling them than…

It's a little surprising to me that you'd expect better customer support from a service with >248 million[1] monthly active users. Having worked for/with departments like this, they have to heavily optimise for their response rate, and use as many macros to respond as possible, which's probably your case as I'd assume that many customers contacted them with the same question. By all means, always speak with your wall…

[deleted]

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really ironic that you are backing up your claims for "substantial research" with links to Vice. The first one is literally just a hitpiece on Elon Musk. The second one's reasoning, built upon a lot of anecdotes, basically goes like this: Reddit banned deepfakes, and subsequently there were no more deepfakes on Reddit, so that's proof that it worked! I can't see it anymore in my bubble so it must be gone! There…

The first is an example of where Rogan doesn't push subjects and takes an overly credulous line of interviewing. A more recent example is him spreading the "antifa is starting fires" bullshit, which he later had to walk back. There are actual studies on the impact of Reddit deplatforming, specifically around the /r/fatpeoplehate and /r/coontown bans. http://comp.social.gatech.edu/papers/cscw18-chand-hate.pdf

Going as far as boycotting Rogan because he's not being critical enough of his guests seems pretty dumb to me. It's a mainstream podcast, and he has high profile guests. No wonder he's not going to grill them.

As to the paper, I think you can poke a lot of holes in it. For example, AFAICT they found that hate speech went down, measured via the frequency of words commonly used within these subreddits. Certainly much of the decline is then attributable to the subreddit's subculture getting killed, and taking with it their slang words. It might just be that other words are in fashion now. And it's not a given that this even generalizes from deplatforming subreddits to deplatforming individuals.

So I still think it's a stretch to call it substantial research, but without getting hung up in any more details, I think the fundamental effectiveness issue with deplatforming is that by taking away the platform, you don't change people's opinions. You just won't see them talk about it anymore, and that's you as in you, the one who banned them, and no one else. They'll still be out there. It's just that now, you're sticking your fingers in your ears and going lalala (this is also mentioned in the paper). See the democrats losing to Trump in 2016 even though basically the whole mainstream media demonized him and his supporters.

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#189
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. I don't believe spotify is making millions or billions in pure profit. Their competitors are able to position their products as loss leaders. I agree some companies could do much better, Google is a massive example, but you still have to remember the scale. Read somewhere, If 0.1%…

> But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. They wouldn't offer great customer service, they'll offer what they feel they can get away with. And there were competitors but they were pushed out (remember RDIO?, good times).

Yeah. Companies tend to think "why get some of the profits when I can cut corners and get all of the profits". Especially when the corners aren't mandated by law (and even sometimes when the cut corners are mandated by law).

Re: FreeYourMusic lets users migrate their playlists off Spotify

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If companies weren't making millions or billions of dollars in pure profit, I'd be more inclined to agree with this line of thought. But their profit/cost ratios are high enough to offer more customer service than they currently are. And ultimately, it's not the customer's fault that the business is not working from a sustainable business model.

But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. I don't believe spotify is making millions or billions in pure profit. Their competitors are able to position their products as loss leaders. I agree some companies could do much better, Google is a massive example, but you still have to remember the scale. Read somewhere, If 0.1%…

Ok, let's use your numbers. 0.1% of days is one service call every 3 years on average, seems reasonable but 10 min may be a bit low. So lets double it.

20 min of a fully loaded 50k employee is about 8 dollars to the company. Or about 2% of a $10 subscription. And that's when I've been pretty generous.

Margins may be so tight this isn't possible, sure; but it isn't obvious. Also note is is hugely higher level of service that what is currently offered, surely there is an in between that is affordable?

Or did I miss something with this back-of-envelope?

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