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Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

engineering.atspotify.com

31–40 of 135 posts

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#31
post #8

When this report came out it was the straw that broke the camel's back for me in terms of my data privacy. Most people seem to have found Wrapped 2020 entertaining but I found it creepy. I miss being able to do something simple like listen to music or watch a movie without all my actions being recorded and saved. So I'm back to buying physical media and DRM free downloads. I'm convinced that it is now important to ho…

> I'm convinced that it is now important to hold on to older appliances that work without internet access or data collection

Or run modern, up to date FOSS equivalents on machines you control.

I’ve migrated more and more services like that and I’m slowly but surely building my own “cloud”.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#32
post #26

Wrapped works so well because it panders to you. Everyone likes to be acknowledged for listening to the weird indie band they discovered earlier this year. I enjoy it anyways, and Spotify is still a great service for now - I wonder if it'll meet the same fate as Netflix at some point, with publishing houses going for their own streaming services instead.

I wonder if it'll meet the same fate as Netflix at some point, with publishing houses going for their own streaming services instead.

I don't think so because the way that people consume music and the way they consume films and television are very different. With a film you might block out a few hours to watch that specific provider. With music you're more likely to want to interleave content from several providers at the same time (eg a playlist). Unless all the providers are available on the same platform it wouldn't work well.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#33

Spotify is a company that feels like they want to be a "big tech company" when in reality they do not need to. All they need to do is provide a great service with as much music as possible.

Wouldn’t surprise me if they shuffle more data than Twitter. Is it because it’s not a Silicon Valley darling that it gets all the snide remarks?

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#35
post #8

When this report came out it was the straw that broke the camel's back for me in terms of my data privacy. Most people seem to have found Wrapped 2020 entertaining but I found it creepy. I miss being able to do something simple like listen to music or watch a movie without all my actions being recorded and saved. So I'm back to buying physical media and DRM free downloads. I'm convinced that it is now important to ho…

Seems strange that "Wrapped 2020" was the straw for you. Ever since launch, the top reasons for starting to use Spotify has been availability (across devices) and the provided radio/discover playlists that automatically finds music based on your previous history, this has always been a core proposition of Spotify, and not something that happened now.

Then it's not always good, right or even close sometimes, but it's not like it's a hidden feature.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#37
post #32
post #26

Wrapped works so well because it panders to you. Everyone likes to be acknowledged for listening to the weird indie band they discovered earlier this year. I enjoy it anyways, and Spotify is still a great service for now - I wonder if it'll meet the same fate as Netflix at some point, with publishing houses going for their own streaming services instead.

I wonder if it'll meet the same fate as Netflix at some point, with publishing houses going for their own streaming services instead. I don't think so because the way that people consume music and the way they consume films and television are very different. With a film you might block out a few hours to watch that specific provider. With music you're more likely to want to interleave content from several providers a…

A considerable amount of music is distributed by a small subset of providers. So in that regard it's not that different to the TV / film situation and you could theoretically still interleave different artists.

There's also a common use case where people will just play a specific artist for an hour. Or even an album.

Frankly, I hope services like Spotify don't disappear. It's a great loss to consumers just how fragmented video streaming services have become. I'd hate to see the same happen to music as well.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#38

Spotify is a company that feels like they want to be a "big tech company" when in reality they do not need to. All they need to do is provide a great service with as much music as possible.

I'm not sure I get the point in relation to the article. They have a huge amount of data, so they need to handle it in a "big tech" way & it's not like they're doing this stuff just because they can.

The Spotify end of year wrap is amazing marketing for them that people absolutely love and share widely.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#39
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s your concern, that your listening history will be linked to your personal identity and somehow used against you? If that’s the case, why not just sign up using a single-use email address, pay via gift cards purchased with cash, and if you’re really concerned, use a VPN?

This is what relentless back-and-forth made someone realise how much Spotify loves him. https://twitter.com/steipete/status/1025024813889478656

Ironically, I've been trying to get that data and cannot. I got a 400KiB zip file with like 10 JSONs inside, only relevant ones being listening history (ts and ms played per song). Support suggested there might be more data, they even re-did the export, but nothing.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#40
post #26

Wrapped works so well because it panders to you. Everyone likes to be acknowledged for listening to the weird indie band they discovered earlier this year. I enjoy it anyways, and Spotify is still a great service for now - I wonder if it'll meet the same fate as Netflix at some point, with publishing houses going for their own streaming services instead.

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