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Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

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Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#11
post #8

>A Spotify Premium user isn't the average music fan. Disagree I consider myself the average music fan and the reason I like this service is that I have all my music with me where ever I go, even if its not my device. Other people I know who use Spotify are mostly average the other half isnt. Spotify has converted me from a pirate in my younger days to a paid music subscriber.

Your use case is why I have iTunes Match. It's finally not buggy, I love it so much it's the reason I got an iPad mini yesterday instead of a nexus 7, and that was a hard decision.

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#12
post #11
post #8

>A Spotify Premium user isn't the average music fan. Disagree I consider myself the average music fan and the reason I like this service is that I have all my music with me where ever I go, even if its not my device. Other people I know who use Spotify are mostly average the other half isnt. Spotify has converted me from a pirate in my younger days to a paid music subscriber.

Your use case is why I have iTunes Match. It's finally not buggy, I love it so much it's the reason I got an iPad mini yesterday instead of a nexus 7, and that was a hard decision.

I am all about cross platform these days. S4 GE phone, iPad, MBP laptop, and a windows desktop powerhouse. iTunes Match sucked when I used it last but its been a while.

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#13
post #10
post #8

>A Spotify Premium user isn't the average music fan. Disagree I consider myself the average music fan and the reason I like this service is that I have all my music with me where ever I go, even if its not my device. Other people I know who use Spotify are mostly average the other half isnt. Spotify has converted me from a pirate in my younger days to a paid music subscriber.

I can't agree. People that use Spotify, Rdio, last.fm are edge cases, they are early adopters, often heavy users - the sort that freemium services often kick off when they mature.

I believe there is a difference between heavy user (myself) and above average music fans. I will concede that maybe more than half are above average. Above average meaning they go to many music festivals and follow what artists are doing.

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#14
post #8

>A Spotify Premium user isn't the average music fan. Disagree I consider myself the average music fan and the reason I like this service is that I have all my music with me where ever I go, even if its not my device. Other people I know who use Spotify are mostly average the other half isnt. Spotify has converted me from a pirate in my younger days to a paid music subscriber.

I completely agree. At first I was a Zune Pass subscriber. I hated that it wasn't cross-platform, but at least it was cheap, had a huge library, and the standalone player was quite good. I had a giant 50gb library of mostly pirated music which I no longer listen to and have since lost. Now I'm an Rdio subscriber. Personally I subscribe to Rdio because I feel the user experience (UI, etc) is far beyond what Spotify offers. Although I'm slightly bummed at some of the exclusive licensing deals that Spotify is getting.

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#15
> They don't pay per play, so most of your money goes to popular artists no matter how indie your listening habits are.

That's a misleading sentence, it implies that your listening choices do not affect how much money goes to indie artists, which is not true. The proportion that each artist gets depends on how many plays they have relative to the plays of all artists in total in a particular time period, which is a proportion you do influence by what you choose to play.

If you want to be misleading in the other direction, you could just as easily say:

"They don't pay per play, so some of your money goes to Satanist artists no matter how mainstream your listening habits are."

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#16
post #8

>A Spotify Premium user isn't the average music fan. Disagree I consider myself the average music fan and the reason I like this service is that I have all my music with me where ever I go, even if its not my device. Other people I know who use Spotify are mostly average the other half isnt. Spotify has converted me from a pirate in my younger days to a paid music subscriber.

I completely agree. At first I was a Zune Pass subscriber. I hated that it wasn't cross-platform, but at least it was cheap, had a huge library, and the standalone player was quite good. I had a giant 50gb library of mostly pirated music which I no longer listen to and have since lost. Now I'm an Rdio subscriber. Personally I subscribe to Rdio because I feel the user experience (UI, etc) is far beyond what Spotify of…

I will have to check out Rdio. Heard of it a lot but havent had the pleasure. Also I love a good UX/UI.

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#17
post #12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your use case is why I have iTunes Match. It's finally not buggy, I love it so much it's the reason I got an iPad mini yesterday instead of a nexus 7, and that was a hard decision.

I am all about cross platform these days. S4 GE phone, iPad, MBP laptop, and a windows desktop powerhouse. iTunes Match sucked when I used it last but its been a while.

I've had it since launch, and it's always been pretty buggy. But for the last 12 months all issues I had (libraries getting weird on one device, streaming choking a bit sometimes) have all been fixed, so I'd gladly recommend it now. 18 months ago? God no ;)

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#18
post #15

> They don't pay per play, so most of your money goes to popular artists no matter how indie your listening habits are. That's a misleading sentence, it implies that your listening choices do not affect how much money goes to indie artists, which is not true. The proportion that each artist gets depends on how many plays they have relative to the plays of all artists in total in a particular time period, which is a p…

I may be appealing to emotion there, but it's certainly not misleading (nor is your claim about Satanists, though I think the proportion going to them is very very small). It's true!

Do you disagree that it would be better for the $10/mo a subscriber pays to go only to the artists they listen to?

Re: Spotify Examined: What Their Report Really Says

#20
post #18
post #15

> They don't pay per play, so most of your money goes to popular artists no matter how indie your listening habits are. That's a misleading sentence, it implies that your listening choices do not affect how much money goes to indie artists, which is not true. The proportion that each artist gets depends on how many plays they have relative to the plays of all artists in total in a particular time period, which is a p…

I may be appealing to emotion there, but it's certainly not misleading (nor is your claim about Satanists, though I think the proportion going to them is very very small). It's true! Do you disagree that it would be better for the $10/mo a subscriber pays to go only to the artists they listen to?

Not only would that be better, but it would be better if it was usage based billing. Why does someone who listens to 10 hours a month pay the same rate as someone who listens to 140 hours?

Great analysis, btw.

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