But you know what? Google doesn't have a desktop app for Google Music. Amazon doesn't have a desktop app for Amazon Prime. Apple doesn't have a desktop version... so yeah, despite the fact that Spotify's only-one-in-the-business desktop app isn't perfect, it does exist... (and I do use it every day between Android and two desktops and I think it works pretty ok)
About once a day, my MacBook's fans start spinning like crazy. By now I know... oh, it's "Spotify Helper" stuck in a loop again, lemme force quit it.
Before I reinstalled, instead Spotify would show me "there's a new version!" every single day, seemingly without upgrading anything.
These serious quality issues, plus the horrifying visual ads (for playlists and new albums) make Spotify a product I kind of love to hate.
I mostly dig the iOS version though.
But I'm still angry with how these services transform the idea of "music player" into "streaming client hooked into the commercial music industry."
* I pay for my streaming music which has no ads so I don't get a freebie AND complain about advertisements (really man...?)
Yeah, I'm a paying Spotify customer and have been for years. You misunderstand which ads I'm talking about.
Hilariously, this exact website could not stop fawning over Apple Music's nearly identical curated, editor-created or automatically generated content.
Personally, I love the Spotify curated content.
I listen to my Discover Weekly every single Monday and very often choose one of their regularly changing playlists when I'm not listening to my own lists.
I was providing what I found to be humorous context regarding the content you derided as advertisement (I'm a bit surprised that curated channels of music are ads to you, do you think that television "Channels" are advertisements for television content too ??)
Well, I just don't understand why it's hilarious that "this website" liked Apple Music's curated stuff, as a context for me not being a fan of Spotify's curated stuff. To me it's just like, a bunch of people liked this one thing, and now I dislike this one other thing, ha ha?
Here's Spotify's Chief Revenue Officer glowing about the advertising potential of their curated playlists:
> “Music is an integral part of life, day in and day out,” said Jeff Levick, Chief Revenue Officer, Spotify. “Our new targeting solutions based on rich behavioral insights combined with our global footprint in 58 markets give brands unprecedented ways to reach streaming consumers.”
https://press.spotify.com/se/2015/04/16/spotify-launches-pla...
Sure, I pay to avoid the actual jingles, but the playlists are still part of their advertising program. And yeah, I think placing these suggested playlists in my visual field every time I launch the app constitutes a form of advertising.
Mostly though I just have a visceral aversion to the copy they use. They give me the same bad feelings as when I look at billboards or hear radio jingles. Right now it's suggesting me to "go out and own this day like if you were boss of the world." I would prefer to use a Spotify client without this stuff.
You mean in Browse, where you go to discover new music? Is there a streaming service that doesn't have a Browse section with recommended playlists/albums/etc?
It's not like they're advertising Dove soap or Coca Cola, they're showing you new music.
"No need to stress out. Stay relaxed with these easy, upbeat songs."
"Soul. It's about feeling. It's about authenticity."
"Coffee table jazz. Relax to the sound of jazz."
"Chill hits. New and hot hits for your chill moments."
I'm just saying, like, my preferred Emacs-based music player (Bongo) never shows this kind of inane, awful, soul-crushing babble.
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.spotify.client/
I had no idea it was another fucking chrome wrapper now. It used to be completely native didn't it? This explains a lot.
Does anyone fancy putting the last good client up on mega or something?
What? iTunes isn't available on the desktop anymore? When did that happen? I used Apple Music on my laptop when it was released last summer.
But finally, an app that doesn't require me to share my pictures with them. That was the spike in the coffin for me. I really enjoyed Spotify when it was new, but their clients has just been lowering in quality ever since beta.
Honestly, I think the beta client was way better than the client today.
> Honestly, I think the beta client was way better than the client today.
As a response to a post only stating that you don't need to use their client? Seriously?
Also, what has facebook to do with anything?
iTunes?
I think Spotify is a great example of why job candidates should look before they leap when it comes to agreeing to be managed in an Agile process or made to work in an open-plan office.
Unfortunately, I agree with you that these types of situations can be good for unproductive employees who want to hide somewhere within a company that might look good on the resume.
I can't say it definitively about Spotify since I have never worked there. All I can say is that the mixture of status signalling open-plan office + needless opulence + Agile strongly suggests dysfunction.
It's further discomforting that they plan to use this money for marketing according to the article. That seems like a big gamble. It's somewhat of a signal that they fundamentally believe what they have engineered is good enough and satisfies customers, and now they just need to generate spam to get more customers.
For a company at their stage and market penetration, I'm not sure this makes a lot of sense. I think Spotify might actually do better by creative innovative new engineering features and improvements, rather than just trying to lever up the number of subscribers for what will more or less be the product they have right now.
If the problem is user acquisition, you don't get there with engineering improvements. Only exception is if those tech/product improvements are for increasing virality.
Yes they'll probably spend the money on marketing / PR, which makes sense since that's likely where the bottleneck (or foreseeable bottleneck given the other players in the industry) in their business is now.
Where is that massive growth supposed to come from if the app is too complicated for users older than 30 years and too bloated for devices older than 2 years?
I shuddered a bit when I read this. I worked at Audible - another successful audio media company - for four years, and you just perfectly described the dysfunctional scenario I witnessed while there. Couldn't have described it better myself.
Plenty of businesses waste money on some employees who effectively do very little, like diversity officers, equality consultants and such useless positions ... The problem isn't them , the problem here is Spotify unstustainable business model, period. They will go down, sooner or later. The fact that they had to take a loan means they can't raise money through VC rounds anymore. It's clearly the end of an era for a LOT of startups. And that's fine. It's call redistributing cards.
I hope more companies hire diversity officers for the sake of thinking hard about how to ensure that policies and company behaviors aren't harmful.
But for me it's a "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of thing. The default belief has to be that it's just a token position for the sake of legal deniability, just as most of HR has evolved into.
Fundamentally they have a bad business model. Good on them for ditching Taylor Swift - while she is very popular the financials likely showed the ROI for having her on the platform was negative.
IMO Spotify is going to either need to change how their business works or make some painful cuts to become sustainable.
The ROI is not negative for major artists. Missing major artists creates "holes" in people's listening habits, and they start getting fed up with the service the more of them that are missing, and that leads to cancellations and churn. Spotify would take her or Adele or whoever else has pulled their content back immediately if possible.
It's not a company I would invest in if I had any money to begin with.
Also that's not to say they all do nothing, some of the talks I've listened to from their Engineers are fascinating and have learned heaps. But it was a shitty decision to ditch the desktop app and rewrite it with no functionality .