Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#51

Post by dagw » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:42 PM UTC

JonAtkinson wrote: post #35

psychotik wrote: post #32

Since you plan to buy music, and seem to have an extensive catalog, give Audiogalaxy ( http://www.audiogalaxy.com ) to have free access to your music from everywhere. It's my startup, so don't let me bias you - check out reviews on iTunes/Android and the web. I'm pretty sure you'll like it. :)

Audiogalaxy is a startup ? Haven't you guys been going for, well, surely more than a decade?

Old Audiogalaxy shut down a few years ago. This is an entirely new thing, but with some of the same people and (re)using the same name.

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#52

Post by kin » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:43 PM UTC

nvarsj wrote: post #49

The convenience of being able to instantly search and listen to the universe of music cannot be understated. It is a killer feature. iTunes Match is a step backwards compared to this - anyone that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.

I wouldn't compare the two. I'd use both. You can't possibly dismiss iTunes Match as a killer feature itself could you?

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#53

Post by chris_j » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:43 PM UTC

psychotik wrote: post #32

Since you plan to buy music, and seem to have an extensive catalog, give Audiogalaxy ( http://www.audiogalaxy.com ) to have free access to your music from everywhere. It's my startup, so don't let me bias you - check out reviews on iTunes/Android and the web. I'm pretty sure you'll like it. :)

What is the relationship between your Audiogalaxy and the Audiogalaxy that existed back in 2000?

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#54

Post by parbo » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:46 PM UTC

grandalf wrote: post #10

Is there a way to disable all "sharing" of what I'm listening to? I really don't want to share that info. It appears that one has to choose "private listening" whenever starting the app.

There is a checkbox in preferences that turns off posting to facebook persistently.

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#55

Post by tommi » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:47 PM UTC

phlyingpenguin wrote: post #45

dasil003 wrote: post #44

I signed up for premium the day they launched in the US. I cancelled the day they required a Facebook account. It may well be that Facebook virality is the only way to grow a music startup. I can't really critique their strategy. But I'll tell you this: I am willing to pay for music services that focus on the music and music-playing experience. I could give fuck all about what track 37 of my friends are listening to,…

Facebook is required? I have the demo of pro and as far as I can tell, I don't have Facebook linked up to it, not that they haven't suggested I could hook it up.

Facebook is required for new accounts.

See http://getsatisfaction.com/spotify/topics/can_you_sign_up_fo...

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#56

Post by cwb71 » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:47 PM UTC

frou_dh wrote: post #17

I just wish Spotify could serve up a stream of recommended tracks, based on your listening history, like Last.fm can. Spotify's "Radio" feature compounds my dislike of "genres" as a means of navigating and discovering music. Radio, play me a stream of "Rock / Alternative / Pop / 70s" What the ---- does that even mean? Guaranteed you'll be skipping 9 out of 10 tracks it serves up. I hate genres. Every file in my local…

"Discovery," both social and machine-generated, is MUCH better on Rdio. I suspect (but have no proof) that they use Echonest for the latter. There is also a slick Chrome extension that puts the Last.fm "Similar Tracks" under the currently playing song.

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#57

Post by nvarsj » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:48 PM UTC

kin wrote: post #52

nvarsj wrote: post #49

The convenience of being able to instantly search and listen to the universe of music cannot be understated. It is a killer feature. iTunes Match is a step backwards compared to this - anyone that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.

I wouldn't compare the two. I'd use both. You can't possibly dismiss iTunes Match as a killer feature itself could you?

With iTunes Match, you have a tiny subset of all possible music to select from. Why limit yourself?

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#58

Post by scelerat » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:49 PM UTC

jnfr wrote: post #19

Spotify, Rdio and all these other sites need to open up their catalog to local and independent artists. That's one of the reasons iTunes was so popular -- they allowed Youtube singers and other aspiring artists to post their songs and allow people to purchase them. They tapped into this long tail and both Apple and these indie artists made money from it. These companies can't compete with the big players by offering…

At Mog (where I work) we have a highly responsive catalog department. We can pretty much get anything that is already in digital format. This includes bands who are distributed solely through CDBaby or other non-label services. Labels push stuff to us on a weekly basis, but for smaller bands, it may be a matter of making a request.

Then there's the flip side: bands who don't do digital distribution at all. Tapes and vinyl. There's nothing a digital music service can do for these. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite bands are like this. They'll take convincing.

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#59

Post by kreek » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:50 PM UTC

I'm pretty happy with my account, the one downside is that with iTunes my wife and I could share an account. With Spotify only one account can be playing at a time. I realize they do this so people don't share accounts with multiple people, but it would be much better if you had five registered devices like iTunes allows.

Re: Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

#60

Post by WiseWeasel » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 7:51 PM UTC

tsellon wrote: post #38

jnfr wrote: post #19

Spotify, Rdio and all these other sites need to open up their catalog to local and independent artists. That's one of the reasons iTunes was so popular -- they allowed Youtube singers and other aspiring artists to post their songs and allow people to purchase them. They tapped into this long tail and both Apple and these indie artists made money from it. These companies can't compete with the big players by offering…

I've only used Spotify, but it actually has better coverage (from what I've seen) of independent acts. It's very easy to get your music on there. CDBaby will register an album on Spotify, iTunes, etc for $30.

$30 AND a large chunk of your sales profits.