Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–28 of 28 posts

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#21

Post by CharlesW »

wgerard wrote: post #4

I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). The platform works for it, and it feels like a natural transition to go from listening to music to listening to a podcast without leaving the platform. The article even notes it's a higher margin business.

> I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?).

Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way.

Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web.

Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order to increase the value of that platform.

The important bit is that the Spotify show isn't a podcast — no podcast app can play it. Spotify owns the listener relationship. They share stats with creators at their pleasure, if at all. It's a closed thing.

Apologies for what will seems like pedantry to some, but podcasting is the only open audio/video medium we've got.

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#22

Post by bkillmer »

nxc18 wrote: post #19

If anyone from Spotify is reading this: I love you, but please please please stop autoplaying videos in my playlists. 1) it makes playback stop when I'm driving. It's hard to get it to start again. If the screen is off, please just play the song in place of the video. 2) the UI goes away when a video is playing so there's no way to see the playlist without jumping through hoops. 3) it wastes data. My family regularly…

Vote here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Mu...

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#23

Post by dsnuh »

traek wrote: post #16
mattj1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't it start as a music annotation platform?

Yes, but the intention was to expand from there to allow community knowledge curation on anything . See Ben Horowitz's note: https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/ Marc Andreessen's note: https://genius.com/1102682

Yes, I remember they tried to expand, but it didn't catch on.

I think it may be because at it's heart Genius feels to me like a skinned/specialized Wikipedia, and Wikipedia already has other information covered. Lyrics are a good fit, because Genius has a format that suits itself well to annotating lyrics, and it is a reliable source for quality lyric content. So many lyrics sites other than Genius are horrible to look at and usually are riddled with ads and popups.

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#24

Post by thedarkginger »

CharlesW wrote: post #21
wgerard wrote: post #4

I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). The platform works for it, and it feels like a natural transition to go from listening to music to listening to a podcast without leaving the platform. The article even notes it's a higher margin business.

> I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way. Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web. Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order…

Do you consider, say, Stitcher Premium's original audio shows like Wolverine "podcasts?"

I'm assuming the answer is now, but that service is certainly pitching that they are the same medium/art form as those in the open space.

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#25

Post by 3pt14159 »

CharlesW wrote: post #21
wgerard wrote: post #4

I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). The platform works for it, and it feels like a natural transition to go from listening to music to listening to a podcast without leaving the platform. The article even notes it's a higher margin business.

> I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way. Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web. Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order…

If Spotify wants to win on podcast there is an easier way to do it: License podcast episodes with a two-week exclusive window. The ultra loyal fans and Twitterati will care but the podcast wont lose mass appeal.

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#26

Post by simongr3dal »

3pt14159 wrote: post #25
CharlesW wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way. Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web. Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order…

If Spotify wants to win on podcast there is an easier way to do it: License podcast episodes with a two-week exclusive window. The ultra loyal fans and Twitterati will care but the podcast wont lose mass appeal.

They already do this (with a one-week exclusive) on the very good music/lyric analysis podcast Dissect (https://dissectpodcast.com)

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#27

Post by CharlesW »

thedarkginger wrote: post #24
CharlesW wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way. Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web. Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order…

Do you consider, say, Stitcher Premium's original audio shows like Wolverine "podcasts?" I'm assuming the answer is now, but that service is certainly pitching that they are the same medium/art form as those in the open space.

> Do you consider, say, Stitcher Premium's original audio shows like Wolverine "podcasts?"

Stitcher does make at least some of their original content available as podcasts, which I think is great. Wolverine: The Long Night appears to be paid-only, but (for example) LeVar Burton Reads has a podcast.[1]

> …that service is certainly pitching that they are the same medium/art form as those in the open space.

It really looks that way. The domain for Wolverine: The Long Night is "wolverinepodcast.com", which to me says that Stitcher is intentionally leveraging podcasting's popularity to try and sell shows that aren't available as podcasts.

Considering that Stitcher was built on podcasting, I find this pretty distasteful.

[1] https://rss.art19.com/levar-burton-reads

Re: Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer

#28

Post by bromuro »

nxc18 wrote: post #19

If anyone from Spotify is reading this: I love you, but please please please stop autoplaying videos in my playlists. 1) it makes playback stop when I'm driving. It's hard to get it to start again. If the screen is off, please just play the song in place of the video. 2) the UI goes away when a video is playing so there's no way to see the playlist without jumping through hoops. 3) it wastes data. My family regularly…

what does this comment have to do with the original article?
Post reply on HN