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Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

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Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#871

Post by drewmol »

jsgo wrote: post #823
drewmol wrote: post #754

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>once they're settled... Should I be expected to monitor changes to a living document that I never read in the first place in order to know whether the current version means I am married to Spotify and act accordingly? Spotify is the one who defaulted first by not providing me the limitless free music I am owed.

If the terms change, they contact you that they changed. At that point, yeah, you’re bound by new terms if you continue using the service. That’s kind of been the way things have been since the advent of Internet services in general. I’m curious how you’re certain they defaulted first when you state that you never read the document in the first place.

>I’m curious how you’re certain they defaulted.

I'm sorry that was sarcasm. I didn't make any assumptions I just clicked the box or button or whatever.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#872

Post by jodrellblank »

brewdad wrote: post #781
stale2002 wrote: post #683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know people can just create another account, right? Also, they can do other things, such as starting a consumer revolt against Spotify, and by giving them bad publicity, that may cause paying users to remember about their unused account and cancel it. Bad publicity costs companies a lot of money.

I don't know about other users, but I'm not canceling my Spotify account to stand in solidarity with the freeloaders. Ad blocking users are a net negative to Spotify, why shouldn't they ban them?

Ad blocking users are a net negative to Spotify, why shouldn't they ban them?

It's not unthinkable that ad blocking users are keeping money and attention away from Spotify's competitors, spreading enthusiasm about Spotify to more people who will become paying customers, and giving Spotify more ears and more user information to inform their decisions.

Ad blocking users cost, but only as much as a low-bitrate audio stream - and that should get cheaper every year. At some point, will it cross so they're not net-negatives?

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#873

Post by 55555 »

cletus wrote: post #255

Good. Spotify has a pretty cheap paid option that removes all of that. To those who justify wanting the paid service for nothing by saying Spotify won't "take responsibility" or "assume liability" for their ads or those ads "might deliver malware" or are "intrusive" as a weak rationalization, you present a false dichotomy. There are at least three options: 1. Pay for the service 2. Suffer through the ads 3. Don't use…

> ... people aren't willing to pay for 1-2 coffees for a month...

Lol it's $10 per month. Who pays $10 for a coffee?

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#874

Post by squeaky-clean »

teawrecks wrote: post #522
akerl_ wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if the approach is “I won’t use services that want to use 3rd-party-RCE-style ads”, it makes sense to me. But the folks who are blocking ads are taking Spotify’s offer (pay us, let us run our ads, or don’t use our service, pick 1) and trying to shoehorn a 4th option that Spotify doesn’t offer: get the content w/o Spotify getting paid. To tell Spotify “I’d use your service if you added an option where the ads didn…

This is just the argument against piracy. And if anyone proved that convenience combats piracy, it's Spotify. If you ever find your users trying to circumvent part of your process in order to make their experience better, the proper response isn't "hold up now, your experience with our product wasn't supposed to be THAT good." It's on their business to figure out how to maximize their customer's satisfaction, while s…

People who use their service and also block ads aren't their customers though. They have no incentive not to block them. Sure it'd be best to come up with an alternate revenue stream that's less annoying and equally or more profitable than ads but obviously no one has or they'd be using it successfully.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#875

Post by dannyr »

michaelmior wrote: post #271
cletus wrote: post #255

Good. Spotify has a pretty cheap paid option that removes all of that. To those who justify wanting the paid service for nothing by saying Spotify won't "take responsibility" or "assume liability" for their ads or those ads "might deliver malware" or are "intrusive" as a weak rationalization, you present a false dichotomy. There are at least three options: 1. Pay for the service 2. Suffer through the ads 3. Don't use…

> 1-2 coffees a month Where do you buy coffee that one coffee costs $10?! (or even $5?) I still don't think it's a lot of money, but not quite so trivial.

$5 or more coffees are common in San Francisco.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#877

Post by mdorazio »

55555 wrote: post #873
cletus wrote: post #255

Good. Spotify has a pretty cheap paid option that removes all of that. To those who justify wanting the paid service for nothing by saying Spotify won't "take responsibility" or "assume liability" for their ads or those ads "might deliver malware" or are "intrusive" as a weak rationalization, you present a false dichotomy. There are at least three options: 1. Pay for the service 2. Suffer through the ads 3. Don't use…

> ... people aren't willing to pay for 1-2 coffees for a month... Lol it's $10 per month. Who pays $10 for a coffee?

A large pumpkin spice latte at the starbucks down the street from me is $5.15. So two of them are over $10 and there are a lot of people who buy those. Average price of other things on the menu is around $4.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#878

Post by michaelmrose »

EpicEng wrote: post #670
michaelmrose wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user wins in that they retain control of their device which is slightly more significant than the ability to listen to some tunes.

...ok so then we're back at "you do not have the right to use the service in any way you like." Glad we agree.

We emphatically don't agree. I believe the user and spotify have the right to do whatever they like with their property. Spotify having the right to discontinue doing business doesn't indicate that the user didn't have the right to control their own property in the first place.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#879

Post by logifail »

munk-a wrote: post #799
logifail wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I have no obligation to make a business profitable. Do we have an obligation to allow script in our browsers? >90% of my "news reading" on the internet is done with NoScript running; from my point of view it's all good, no ads, no GDPR pop-ups, pages load quickly, fewer worries about tracking. It's probably not what publishers want, though.

That's where the question gets interesting! Your browser definitely (under current laws) has the right to refuse to allow NoScript to run, so if a similar program specifically targeted google ads then chrome would not be obligated to support it and could use the laws around your legal right (and lack thereof) to proprietary modify software to order you to cease & desist running it. I think that websites do, legally,…

>> I _suspect_ that using NoScript to alter the page is actually illegal under current intent ...

Yet some would say the pages get altered by the scripts that stuff in the awful ads

In any case, you don't need an add-in to disable scripting. Hell, use curl to fetch the damned page. That's about as "pure" a way of fetching one as you can get.

The day they rule that curl is illegally blocking ads is the day I become a monk.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#880

Post by thaumasiotes »

kingosticks wrote: post #623
wasdfff wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are headphones where %30 volume would do some damage.

And if there's some kind of bug where the volume shoots up to max, you just go deaf?

Yeah, there are headphones like that. I have unfortunately owned a pair.
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