Audiobooks on Spotify • Hacker News Board

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#41

Post by w0m » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

jjice wrote: post #39

As someone who uses Spotify every day, I hate it. I hate their expanding markets while constantly making the app more bloated, slow, and less intuitive. Really, you're going to fill my recommended page with podcasts you've paid a ton of money for exclusivity instead of showing me recommended music that's relevant to me, like they used to? Audiobooks aren't going to make my music experience any better either. Can't wa…

spotify podcasts are kind of garbage imo; player just doesn't handle it well moving between or around episodes and music depending on what I'm doing.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#42

Post by damontal » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

Why would i buy a full price audiobook through Spotify when I can just use Audible?

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#43

Post by plorg » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

I think Apple is being abusively extractive here.

I also believe that Spotify's audiobook play will be bad for consumers and worse for artists.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#44

Post by scblock » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

Corporate propaganda. Hardly “the full story”.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#45

Post by Bombthecat » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

Does it save position now on an audiobook? For example if you listen to music inbetween?

Cause if not, it's still useless

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#46

Post by CharlesW » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #20

JadoJodo wrote: post #2

Does anyone else take issue with Spotify branching out into other arenas (e.g., Podcasts, TV, Audiobooks, etc.)? I'm honestly kinda tired of all of these services trying to gobble up any slightly related industry. I subscribe to Spotify to listen to music, not podcasts. My podcasts arrive using a different app with the backing of the RSS standard, not Spotify's internal standard. I don't want to get a subscription co…

> Does anyone else take issue with Spotify branching out into other arenas (e.g., Podcasts, TV, Audiobooks, etc.)? > I subscribe to Spotify to listen to music, not podcasts. My podcasts arrive using a different app with the backing of the RSS standard, not Spotify's internal standard 100%. I will never touch Spotify Podcasts for that reason and that a number of the podcasts I listen to have specifically talked about…

> They don't care about the open nature of podcasts and they want to lure people in then put a wall up around them.

This is key. "Podcasts" and "podcasting" were created to refer to an open medium, but Spotify's intentional adoption and perversion of those words to refer to their proprietary platform has worked brilliantly. We're further down the embrace/extend/extinguish path than most people realize.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#47

Post by jnsaff2 » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

jjice wrote: post #39

As someone who uses Spotify every day, I hate it. I hate their expanding markets while constantly making the app more bloated, slow, and less intuitive. Really, you're going to fill my recommended page with podcasts you've paid a ton of money for exclusivity instead of showing me recommended music that's relevant to me, like they used to? Audiobooks aren't going to make my music experience any better either. Can't wa…

No post body was provided.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#48

Post by LtWorf » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:25 PM UTC

tpxl wrote: post #35

Maxburn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify is a horrible podcast player. The audio engine doesn't have nuanced speed control or remove silence like other dedicated podcast apps. I also find the podcast UI is terrible for managing shows and play list. And then there's the bugs that don't get fixed for a long time. Last year they had one where every time a podcast was interrupted by a notification or something it would start over from the start. Lastly…

> are not, by definition, a podcast because they don't have a valid rss feed Does a podcast need to have a rss feed? All I see in definitions is that its an audio format made available over the internet. > And of course there's zero chance they will embrace podcast 2.0 features What is Podcasting 2.0? All I see is a bunch of people doing podcasting differently, namely adding ads and crypto.

Yes it needs an RSS feed. Otherwise it's just an mp3 file.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#49

Post by wobbly_bush » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:25 PM UTC

firloop wrote: post #8

As a consumer, I’ve actually come to prefer in app purchases. I love when a subscription is available on IAP because for something like a newspaper, I know that I can cancel it with a couple of taps instead of having to fill out some long retention form or call someone.

Are you also willing to pay the extra Apple tax for this convenience instead of expecting the subscription provider to eat those costs?

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#50

Post by corobo » Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

firloop wrote: post #8

As a consumer, I’ve actually come to prefer in app purchases. I love when a subscription is available on IAP because for something like a newspaper, I know that I can cancel it with a couple of taps instead of having to fill out some long retention form or call someone.

iOS will remind you you've got an active subscription going if you delete the relevant app too, that's a nice touch