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To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

blog.8tracks.com

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Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#31

Post by momokoko »

8tracks was amazing. Unfortunately, after they attempted the paid subscription model I moved to a paid subscription service that also included play on demand of songs and albums.

I had always hoped that 8tracks could have been purchased by a larger player(Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music) and then be allowed to continue its content model under one of those subscription plans. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Thanks 8tracks for, by far, the best playlist based streaming service. Good luck in the future to you all.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#32

Post by scarmig »

Zarath wrote: post #27
ianai wrote: post #5

“the company and its streaming service will wind down with the end of the decade, on December 31st, 2019” Years started being numbered at 1 so the decade ends on December 31 2020.

What? No. If Y2K was the beginning of a new millennium then Jan 1 2020 is the beginning of a new decade.

Someone clearly did not pay much attention in 1999 to the incessant pedantry that the new millennium didn't really start until 2001.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#33

Post by themagician »

Bootwizard wrote: post #8

For someone that never used it, what was the appeal of this service? I took a look at the site and didn't really get it. What does this have over Spotify?

8tracks launched a few years earlier than Spotify. 2008 v 2011 (Spotify US).

So for a few years if you wanted to share a playlist this was THE way. The early day of Spotify also had a limited library and not a lot of people used it.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#34

Post by j1elo »

phreack wrote: post #6
j1elo wrote: post #4

> in early 2016, we were required to cut off streaming to listeners outside the US and Canada I didn't fully understand who it was that required 8tracks to stop streaming abroad, but I wholeheartedly hate them so much. It was my preferred music service, I loved discovering all sorts of playlists and new music, while I've always disliked the Spotify client. To see it dissappear, probably due to greed from royalty owne…

A tragedy, these laws were created to promote art and nowadays are exclusively used to hide and destroy it.

Ironically, yes. That's the net effect. Not only for what sunks today, but also for what never gets to be, because they evaluate the current state of things and decide that it's not worth the effort trying to innovate in that area.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#35

Post by nine_k »

phreack wrote: post #6
j1elo wrote: post #4

> in early 2016, we were required to cut off streaming to listeners outside the US and Canada I didn't fully understand who it was that required 8tracks to stop streaming abroad, but I wholeheartedly hate them so much. It was my preferred music service, I loved discovering all sorts of playlists and new music, while I've always disliked the Spotify client. To see it dissappear, probably due to greed from royalty owne…

A tragedy, these laws were created to promote art and nowadays are exclusively used to hide and destroy it.

No, these laws were created to promote art being paid for.

This sort of worked! But maximizing the payout ≠ maximizing the breadth of distribution. It often is more lucrative to segment the market, only sell to those who is ready to pay more than a pittance, and never try to sell for cheaper to a wider audience. It's especially true for digital goods that can be perfectly moved around the globe in under half a second of latency.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#37

Post by herbstein »

Is there a name to the concept of always getting in on something too late?

I won't say I'm a music fanatic, but I quite enjoying finding new music and new bands to listen to. I just checked out a few playlists and they were very solid for the most part. I can only imagine how useful this would've been to use regularly.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#38

Post by omgwtfbbqhihihi »

deepsand wrote: post #16

I’m interested to know to how much their data breach in 2017 [0] impacted attrition. This breach included email addresses and encrypted passwords. I really enjoyed the service but like many, Spotify’s competing (albeit subpar) features led me astray as I consolidated my listening to a single platform. And being outside of the US and Canada, I couldn’t use it after the 2016 cut off. Subsequently, 8tracks fell off the…

did they really foolishly encrypt passwords? what a novice mistake.

Re: To everything there is a season – Why we're shutting down

#40

Post by ChuckMcM »

You only need this line: And our growth in listening and revenues during 2013 meant we no longer qualified as a Small Webcaster; instead of paying royalties calculated as a percentage of revenues — such that royalties grow as revenues grow, as one would expect — we now had to pay high per-play rates as a Large Webcaster, taking us out of profitability.

The music licensing structure is set up to kill anything above a certain size, period. What is worse is that there is no size at which you are in a position to change that structure and disintermediate the entrenched interests of the major labels.

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