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Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

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Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#41
post #34
post #3

i just signed up. what's wrong with spotify?

The main news item right now is about Joe Rogan disseminating misinformation about the pandemic, and saying racist things. Besides that, they're known for paying comparatively little per stream to musicians. They also engage in rent-seeking behavior. Their strategy around podcasts is to get exclusives, which they can do better than smaller players because of their market position, and it's money they're not spending…

> Besides that, they're known for paying comparatively little per stream to musicians.

Compared to which service?

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#42
post #9
post #3

i just signed up. what's wrong with spotify?

It is keeping the most popular podcast in the world on its platform, despite the host breaking Spotify's TOS on the subject of COVID misinformation.

The idea that Spotify is "platforming" Rogan is laughable. They paid him millions of dollars to come to their platform. Spotify is not bringing an audience to Rogan, Rogan is bringing an audience to Spotify.

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#43

Quoted post unavailable.

The numbers being called out greatly exceed 3 and 6. Unsure what inflation would have to do with cancellation numbers unless you are arguing that the cost of the service has inflated more greatly than the income of its users. However, the story did seem to give context for what is driving these numbers, and inflation was not one of them. Can you elaborate on why you think it is due to inflation, rather than what the…

> unless you are arguing that the cost of the service has inflated more greatly than the income of its users.

It's not required that the service itself has an inflated price. People have some amount of spending money. If inflation is causing other things to cost more, there will be less spending money left over.

> Can you elaborate on why you think it is due to inflation, rather than what the article cited?

I'm not the one you're replying to, but I know my fuel and food bill has gone up dramatically. I've canceled two, rarely used, streaming services, as a result.

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#44
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I canceled my premium subscription because of all of the Joe Rogan episodes they deleted.

Was there a comment box to tell them why you cancelled? Just wondering if the cancellations are sending mixed signals between the "I'm mad you took down Joe Rogan episodes" camp and the "I'm mad you took down Neil Young or others" camp of users.

I was worried about that too, but yes, there was a comment box asking to explain the reason for the cancellation, and I was careful to make it clear.

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#45
post #40
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-01-30/spotify-platform-rul... > Content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health His ivermectin/vaccine stuff breaks the TOS.

I guess that depends on ones definition of "promotes" and even "false". And, "deceptive" requires intent. I imagine this is up for some interpretation.

> And, "deceptive" requires intent.

Obviously, it doesn't, because adjudicating this would require building a mind-reading device. Unless Spotify possesses one, clearly, the intent behind this rule is that the intent behind the deception is irrelevant. A rule that you can break by having the right or wrong thoughts isn't a rule.

> I guess that depends on ones definition of "promotes" and even "false".

Yes, and it also depends on what their definition of "Content", "Harm", "Health", "Medical", and "Information". What's your point? Words have generally agreed upon meanings, we aren't just shouting Shannon noise into the ether.

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#46
post #2

What is SimilarWeb and how do they know that? Because I have a hunch that they are pulling the numbers out of their asses just so they are mentioned in articles from shitty blogs like this one.

fwiw I have seen situations where their numbers were completely detached from reality, in absolute terms as well as relative comparisons over time.

They're especially inaccurate for any product with mobile apps, since they have zero insight into that traffic. Nor do they properly extrapolate between the massively different traffic patterns of users with apps (which tends to be a lot stickier) vs web traffic.

Several times, people citing SimilarWeb numbers have argued with me about things where I had first-hand direct knowledge of the correct numbers (e.g., numbers involving a company I worked for). It's frustrating. These people sided with SimilarWeb because it's some source they can cite, nevermind the fact that it was complete garbage in these cases.

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a bunch of Chrome extensions that spy on what users are visiting online, and use that data to sell their product to marketers. Personally think Google should get rid of them as they are a travesty to online privacy.

So google should also ban themselves? At least the Chrome extensions people installed themselves, can't say the same about Google fonts/analytics/whatever else

Apples and oranges,

You install Google Analytics precisely to track where users are going.

You don’t install a Google Chrome extension so a company can track every site you are visiting.

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#48
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers being called out greatly exceed 3 and 6. Unsure what inflation would have to do with cancellation numbers unless you are arguing that the cost of the service has inflated more greatly than the income of its users. However, the story did seem to give context for what is driving these numbers, and inflation was not one of them. Can you elaborate on why you think it is due to inflation, rather than what the…

> unless you are arguing that the cost of the service has inflated more greatly than the income of its users. It's not required that the service itself has an inflated price. People have some amount of spending money. If inflation is causing other things to cost more, there will be less spending money left over. > Can you elaborate on why you think it is due to inflation, rather than what the article cited? I'm not t…

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. That is a rational argument for how inflation would impact subscriptions, even when the price of the subscription does not increase. Though, wouldn't the effects of inflation be seen as being less spike-y? The highlight of this article was that visitations to the cancellation page spiked hundreds of percent week-over-week, however, inflation while crushing, hasn't spiked to such a degree over this same period. Would it then be reasonable to infer that these visitations to the cancellation page are not (primarily) driven by inflation?

Re: Spotify sees spike in traffic to cancellation page: 196% week-on-week

#49
I like spotify (I pay for the service) but I dont like anything about this.

I don't like that spotify are doing "podcasts". For me, poscasts are the last (popular) vestiges of the old web. I wish they would remain platform-free. The creators own servers and an RSS feed. Total control for the creators, noone to ask for permisson. Tell me I'm dreaming.

I don't like that Joe Rogan is on spotify. Never heard his show, I understand that he is some kind of post-radio chock-jock. However, I know that he is very popular so by bringing him on spotify is kind of cementing that spotify is how you do podcasts now.

I don't like that spotify felt the need to remove some old episodes for him. If they are really doing podcast they should buy the whole hog, including the warts.

I dont like that musicians are leaving spotify. Those that have very publicly left dont affect me much as it's not my style of music, but it's a bad trend.

As a Swede i personally know people that pays the rent with spotify money. I don't like that that might end.

Sorry for the rant

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