To provide a counterpoint to comments here, I only started listening podcasts when Spotify added them and know they are the most important use of the app for me now. If tomorrow Spotify removed podcasts from the apps, I'd probably cancel my subscription and move on to YouTube video essays or something.
Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
271–280 of 299 posts
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think calling this censorship is like saying Applebee's censors beer because they stock Bud Lite over Old Rasputin. Spotify is the owner of the content and pulled those episodes for the same reason all mass marketed content gravitates to the bland and benign - bland and benign is easier to sell to a large mass of people. Joe Rogan was free (not just free, well compensated) as an indy and could have kept his lucrati…
> Joe Rogan was free (not just free, well compensated) as an indy and could have kept his lucrative gig, but spotify dumped a truck load of money in his lawn and he decided he'd rather have that. I mean obviously we can't know for sure without access to his finances, but I remember seeing some estimates that he could've earned the amount of money Spotify gave to him in like two years or so. So his choice was money up…
> In my view, he made the wrong choice.
I agree, but it's his choice to make. Money in the hand today is better than tomorrow.
As a very casual JRE listener, he's completely gone from my radar since he moved to Spotify. Reminds me a lot of when Stern went to satellite. The show lost its widespread relevance almost overnight. And when the show loses relevance, it becomes harder to get the best guests and it becomes a slow downward spiral to bland/repetitive.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's losing my interest more and more is that their music recommendations are terrible, rarely match my taste... The really aggravating thing is that we know they have the tech to do better. There was that demo of a 2D embedding of genre-space that actually did a pretty decent job of grouping similar-sounding songs together, but their recommendations all seem to be based off of what was popular at the same time, or…
I don't see the connection between Smashing Pumpkins and Aphex Twin though, what kind of genre matching do you think would enable that on your specific example? Not nit-picking, just piqued my curiosity about how you would connect those artists.
That's exactly the problem, those songs are not in either artist's genre. The artists don't sound similar, but the songs do. By "genre" I mean the effective genre (mood/vibe, instrumentation, pacing, chord progression, etc) of the song, not the nominal genre of the artist.
I would listen to those two songs in a row and be completely satisfied by the transition.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#274To provide a counterpoint to comments here, I only started listening podcasts when Spotify added them and know they are the most important use of the app for me now. If tomorrow Spotify removed podcasts from the apps, I'd probably cancel my subscription and move on to YouTube video essays or something.
Well, you're better served to just migrate to an open podcast app like Overcast, PocketCast, Podcast Addict, etc. Their player is better than Spotify by an order of magnitude anyway.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry, hit me up on my email in my profile if you want to discuss more! A "Is Joe Rogan a racist?" conversation is not interesting, and this place is about hosting interesting discussions.
> A "Is Joe Rogan a racist?" conversation is not interesting, and this place is about hosting interesting discussions. Yeah... because it's a bullshit conversation that people know is false, and any attempt to try to argue otherwise would see you utterly destroyed with facts. Rogan and Chappelle are great friends. Rogan was friends with Patrice O'Neal. He's friends with Colion Noir and has him on the show about every…
I won't go so far as to call Rogan a racist, but it is undeniable that he platforms known racists and does little to challenge their hateful beliefs. In effect Rogan is re-platforming those rightfully cancelled from forums with even the smallest amount of decorum, allowing hateful rhetoric to spread unabated.
>Yeah... because it's a bullshit conversation that people know is false, and any attempt to try to argue otherwise would see you utterly destroyed with facts.
This is not something someone with a convincing argument says before:
>Rogan and Chappelle are great friends. Rogan was friends with Patrice O'Neal. He's friends with Colion Noir and has him on the show about every six - twelve months.
...using the same argument whites use to justify saying the N word. Racists/supremacists tend to have token black friends, typically of lesser status or means, as cover.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn’t even try to upload my own songs. I just want to add stuff to my library and then be able to browse everything in my library by artist and album. On the iPhone app, this is impossible, which is absolutely baffling.
Why hold on to the concept of a library? I just pick a genre that fits my mood and let ${MUSIC_SERVICE} generate a playlist. If I don't like a song I just skip it. I don't see any advantages of spending time and effort curating a library, which harks back to the days of physical media.
Sometimes the discrete unit I am looking to listen to is the album, not just a song.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, why are we not coding on laptops from 1994? The user interface can be wildly different. Pocket casts changed recently but oh how I lived the old ui. Spotify had nothing on it. Haven't had a reason to download Spotify since even though I haven't liked all the changes in the new pocket casts.
Your snarky response isn't helpful. You've only said "it's different" and dismissed Spotify while also not giving any reasons why you dislike it.
I don't dislike it. I'm happy with my podcast player and don't want two of them since I want to keep using the one with the interface I like.
Other things than the pure content matter. It's not irrelevant.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#278Do Spotify actually manage to sell any significant number of subscriptions due to podcasts? Personally when ever I hear about an interesting podcast, and it's followed by "available on Spotify/Podimo, whatever", my reaction is always: Okay, never mind then. There are so many great podcasts on the open web. Those available on platforms like Spotify always seems to be people with existing celebrity status trying to "ca…
Spotify is targeting the millions of customers that already use their app who aren't regular podcast listeners. These people will now get exposed to the podcast ecosystem through Spotify and that'll help boost subscriber retention.
This is me.
I have Spotify Premium for listening to music while I work but I started listening to podcasts while doing mindless chores like laundry or dishes.
It's convenient to just have the one app.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn’t even try to upload my own songs. I just want to add stuff to my library and then be able to browse everything in my library by artist and album. On the iPhone app, this is impossible, which is absolutely baffling.
Why hold on to the concept of a library? I just pick a genre that fits my mood and let ${MUSIC_SERVICE} generate a playlist. If I don't like a song I just skip it. I don't see any advantages of spending time and effort curating a library, which harks back to the days of physical media.
There's a couple of things I object to there, because personally I really enjoy exploring new music and the back catalogue of bands.
Some artists really put effort into developing their albums or EPs as a coherent expression. If we all were to change to experiencing music like you describe it would inevitably result in a sea change in how the art is created in the first place. Artists will look to optimize for that particular method of consumption, in much the same way we have a large focus on individual track releases now in the streaming dominated world. I feel this limits the expression of the artists in general
I think that this would lead to further stagnancy or homogeneity in the most popular genres, as the playlist generation will look to optimize for the most listeners. This would come at the expense of artists who are not already in the public's sphere of consciousness, and would deeply hurt genres which have infinitely deep pools of sub-genres and micro-scenes; the world of Heavy Metal comes to mind specifically here. I think this damages the overall health of popular music in totality.
More interestingly because music in general is an incredibly subjective experience, opinionated tastemakers can be crucial for exposing underground or breaking through artists to a larger audience. Historically people like John Peel, and more recently Anthony Fantano (TheNeedleDrop) bring new music from underground artists in a wide range of genres to people's attention. It can feel like a minor triumph when you discover a new album that just speaks to you in a style of music you have no grounding in, especially when it's recommended to you by someone you know or trust.
While you may listen to more music in the way you describe, I don't think it would invoke nearly the same level of connection that I feel now, personally I find that to be a bit bleak, and self-defeating in the long term.
Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but they could lose subscribers due to Podcasts. See, I pay for Spotify because of their playlists. Playlists have nothing to do with podcasts. I listen to my podcasts using a different app. Yet Spotify keeps throwing its podcasts in my face. Spotify is not good at podcasts. That's why I use a different app for that. I'm getting tired of scrolling past all the podcast spam in my Spotify UI, and yet Spotify provid…
Podcasts have really ruined Spotify's mobile app. The worst part is that there is space for a "Podcasts" tab in the bottom bar that would have made everyone happy by clearly separating types of content. Apple has gone a similar route recently with reducing the Activity/Fitness app to just two/three tabs, mushing all sorts of content together. I hope this doesn't become another user-hostile UI trend.
Spotify have obviously weighed the pros and cons of being actively intrusive into their user's experience in order to build brand awareness of their nascent podcast business.
Personally they keep advertising podcasts by people who I find morally or politically objectionable, which makes me quite unhappy that I cannot hide or remove their content (and podcasts as a whole) from the Home Screen.