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Audiobooks on Spotify

timetoplayfair.com

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Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#131

Post by threeseed »

waboremo wrote: post #109
r2222 wrote: post #91

Yeah the App Store rules suck and that’s all on Apple, but I find it a bit silly for Spotify to repeatedly act surprised about them. It’s the same cycle: Spotify wants go around App Store rules → Apple says no → Spotify fires up the timetoplayfair dot com with slightly tweaked text to fit whatever issue they have this time.

How else are they going to challenge the status quo? I'm confused by people acting shocked and appalled every time any other company brings up issues with the status quo. Spotify wants to get into Audiobooks, Apple won't let them, Spotify wants to make a social ruckus so people are aware of who to blame and to demand change. Before you consider the idea they should just quietly try to push regulation, consider withou…

Maybe Spotify should take the lead.

Allow third party payment services and music stores in their app. With 0% cut of course.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#132

Post by prepend »

counttheforks wrote: post #38
prepend wrote: post #28

Do you know what I hate? Spotify having my credit card. There’s a very low chance I ever buy an audiobook if they integrate with apple’s purchase flow. There’s a zero chance if they had their own flow that pops up and asks me for a credit card. And a separate system to update numbers, cancel stuff, etc etc I get that Spotify wants more money. I’m sure publishers hated selling audiobooks to Barnes & Noble and them tak…

Thanks to 3-D Secure it doesn't really matter who has your credit card details. Relying on the secrecy of a few numbers is silly anyway.

I’m not concerned about the security of my cars. I’m concerned about entering it again and Spotify charging me for stuff.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#133

Post by amerkhalid »

waboremo wrote: post #110
nerdjon wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If apple opens the floodgates allowing these purchases outside of this option, why would a company give apple's option to consumers? Apple enforcing it is the only reason as a consumer I don't have to deal with park patterns for many of the apps I use. Which is a good thing for consumers

You mean Apple would have to be competitive regarding their own services for once? Actually have it make financial sense and provide a seamless experience for companies so they're encouraged to use it rather than forced? No... that can't be a good thing for consumers.

Honestly, after getting screwed over by so many companies making one jump through so many hoops to cancel a subscription, I rather have Apple's way.

Perhaps when law or credit card processors force companies to provide an easy way to cancel a service, as easy as it was to sign up for it, then I can worry about competition in IAP space.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#134

Post by threeseed »

plorg wrote: post #43

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.

Apple has been crystal clear since day one that they want a percentage of payments being facilitated through their platform.

For them they are a channel and channels have costs.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#135

Post by Aachen »

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…

No, I don't at all mind them trying to break the monopoly on audio books that is Amazon. (You can get them from the original publisher (not author/narrator) for 35 bucks, or 10 from Amazon. I'm willing to pay a premium for avoiding Amazon but I love audio books and I'm not as rich as Bezos.)

Podcasts was never a monopoly, but they're trying to make it one with the exclusive shows. That's what I hate. I have Spotify premium for music, so I could listen to those, but I unsubscribed from those podcasts immediately when they became exclusive. There's plenty more.

TV, I didn't know Spotify was trying to do, but same logic applies there.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#136

Post by pwinnski »

fleddr wrote: post #129
pwinnski wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not GP, but I think the argument was: "IAP is easy and simple and secure and well-known, and should be used." Spotify is acting as if Apple is blocking them in many different ways, but all would be solved if Spotify would use IAP, which is super-simple for users, but doesn't make Spotify as much money.

You're saying the exact same thing: follow the rules. Completely ignoring that those rules are insane.

"IAP is easy and simple and secure and well-known, and should be used."

Is that better?

I will never use a purchase method on iOS that isn't IAP. Never, and I'm not alone.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#137

Post by fleddr »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #111
fleddr wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that they have many teams each doing a tiny part of the app's UI, and proudly advertise this model as a best practice: https://blog.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SpotifyScal... Baffling how you can have so many engineers working on a music player, and it ends up worse than Winamp or Mediaplayer from 25 years ago.

Software interfaces in general have regressed severely since the mid-2000s. Media players are a perfect example. There was 10x more functionality in Winamp or Windows Media Player than we get in Spotify or Apple Music today. What is going on? Why are things getting dumber? Are we just optimizing too hard for the lowest common denominator and the average user wants things to be dead simple? I don't want to believe sof…

Same for Netflix. A basic UI like Popcorn time is all that most people need. Instead we get a situation where both the UI and content is randomized, constantly shuffled. The simplest of use cases are barely supported or completely missing.

It's not just incompetence, they are intentional dark patterns. Netflix doesn't want you to structurally browse their catalog in easy ways as you might conclude that it falls short. So it throws random things at you, auto-playing videos, etc. Giving the inflated impression that there's always something interesting for you.

Likewise, user reviews, an absolutely basic community feature, is simply not there. Because if it would be there, and assuming they are fair reviews, you could filter by rating. Which once again could reveal a lack of quality content. Best to mask that.

It's sad to consider that the output of hundreds of engineers and some very high-tech data science leads to something a single engineer in mum's basement could do better.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#138

Post by threeseed »

fleddr wrote: post #105
sdfhbdf wrote: post #69

Quoting from the page: > TLDR: Apple rules mandate a cumbersome Audiobooks purchasing process This is very much a lie. Apple’s way is the easy way - use IAP. And it seems that like with facebook [1] they’re trying to apply the rules evenly to everybody. Spotify religiously denies using Apple’s In App Payments. The attempt to send emails on how to purchase audiobooks is their sneaky way of bypassing the rules. They no…

Your argument is "they are the rules". I think the point is that the rules are anti-competitive, user-hostile, extractive.

You can make anything anti-competitive.

Spotify doesn't offer an API to allow me to replace their payment system with mine where I would direct 100% of profits to artists. Because that is their revenue source.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#139

Post by fleddr »

pwinnski wrote: post #136
fleddr wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying the exact same thing: follow the rules. Completely ignoring that those rules are insane.

"IAP is easy and simple and secure and well-known, and should be used." Is that better? I will never use a purchase method on iOS that isn't IAP. Never, and I'm not alone.

Who cares if you prefer IAP? Use IAP then. The discussion is not that IAP is bad, the discussion is that it's the only option, hence no option. You can't even talk of other options.

Re: Audiobooks on Spotify

#140

Post by eduction »

Elidrake42 wrote: post #107
eduction wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't consider HTTP basic auth as part of the open ecosystem because it's not, as far as I know, widely supported by clients. Is it? Maybe my assumption was wrong. But it's also not part of the original "open" podcast vision because it is closed by definition, on an access level, and opens the door to tracking. Wouldn't most users in the open ecosystem be confused by an auth prompt? Wouldn't it be better for the o…

As someone with a few Patreon feeds, yes it is widely supported, and the few that don't support it do support URL parameters so a token works fine as well.

I Patreon (verb?) two podcasts and for both it was just a custom URL, I don't recall an option to use a password though maybe I missed the option.
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