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Spotify |OT| All the music, all the time

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Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Squall ASF said:
Thanks for the explanation. Seems like it's only useful for people with limited drive space or if you are morally against pirating. I could see it being convenient if the full version was free, but I don't see how it's worth 10 bucks a month when I can do this all free with minimal effort.
WTF, dude?
 

CzarTim

Member
NGAMER9 said:
Thanks for posting, this is extremely interesting, even if slightly depressing to see how little the musicians really make from things like this.
I've always felt like musicians should make their money from touring and look at albums as promotions for the tours.
 

NGAMER9

Member
CzarTim said:
I've always felt like musicians should make their money from touring and look at albums as promotions for the tours.
Yeah, that's essentially what bands do, even if services like Bandcamp are allowing bands to self-release and keep the money themselves. It was still a little shocking to me that they make roughly 1/5th of a cent on a stream. Of course I'm of the opinion that it just promotes the band, gets people to buy the albums and see them live and whatnot, so I don't see it as bad for musicians.
 
Appreciate the other comments about discovering artists, sharing, etc. For you music white knights, calm down. I didn't say I pirate, I wanted to know what services Spotify provides that downloading doesn't. I've heard Spotify raved by friends and the internet and just wanted to know what services gave it that reputation because so many people torrent so I was curious how this will rival that. I'm not adverse to downloading though, I just don't bother. I buy my favorite artist's albums and can get whatever else from friends. BTW, you support artists far more by going to concerts. Again, thank you to those who gave calm, useful responses.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Squall ASF said:
Appreciate the other comments about discovering artists, sharing, etc. For you music white knights, calm down. I didn't say I pirate, I wanted to know what services Spotify provides that downloading doesn't. I've heard Spotify raved by friends and the internet and just wanted to know what services gave it that reputation because so many people torrent so I was curious how this will rival that. I'm not adverse to downloading though, I just don't bother. I buy my favorite artist's albums and can get whatever else from friends. BTW, you support artists far more by going to concerts. Again, thank you to those who gave calm, useful responses.
Seems like you're just backtracking in an effort not to get banned. I don't personally care because I have no dog in the fight. But you're not fooling anyone.

Anyway, Spotify is super convenient. It's nice to find a track and just hit play. I'd go for a premium if it didn't cost more than Netflix. The price is too high, IMO, especially when I have a ton of my music on Amazon and Google already. But the ability to discover new music keeps making me reconsider over and over.
 

Fusebox

Banned
I've been mucking around a bit with Spotify free this morning, and I think I prefer Pandora. Spotify makes me think too much about what I want to listen to.
 
Fusebox said:
I've been mucking around a bit with Spotify free this morning, and I think I prefer Pandora. Spotify makes me think too much about what I want to listen to.
I was just noticing this after I ran out of stuff I could think to add.

I've got too many cloud music things going. Now including this, Amazon and Google Music.
 
Bboy AJ said:
Seems like you're just backtracking in an effort not to get banned. I don't personally care because I have no dog in the fight. But you're not fooling anyone.

Anyway, Spotify is super convenient. It's nice to find a track and just hit play. I'd go for a premium if it didn't cost more than Netflix. The price is too high, IMO, especially when I have a ton of my music on Amazon and Google already. But the ability to discover new music keeps making me reconsider over and over.
I'm not fooling anyone? melodramatic much? If I was high on piracy, why would I bother to sign up with Spotify in the first place? I also certainly wouldn't have thrown in that comment about not being adverse to it. All I wanted to know was: In a world full of pirating where countless people do it, what services does this platform bring that it caught on with such popularity? All the rage for the past years has been torrent shit so I was pretty surprised to see a legit platform get such traction. I signed up and tried a search or two and played a few songs with the free version. I then had to go out and didn't get to play with it more so I asked here in an OT about Spotify, for the different services. Multiple posters informed me of it's uses which I appreciate. I can see the social sharing aspect of it really catching on, sharing a new album that friends may not have heard of or tossing a collection of songs to a friend upon their request or vice a versa. In an age where social networking rules the internet, this certainly has a place.

I agree with you on the track play, I was impressed how their was no buffer time, it simply just played. I'm just torn on the premium for the reason you stated, price. I just don't like the idea of 'adding' a new monthly bill which is the reason I've never signed up for Netflix despite thinking it's a pretty nifty service.
 
Fusebox said:
Not really, I'd have to pay for Spotify because the free version doesn't offer me anything.

It offers you the ability to save songs that you liked on Pandora? And free Pandora + premium Spotify = you can take songs you liked on Pandora and listen to them whenever you want on an smartphone or iTouch?
 

Keen

Aliens ate my babysitter
Long time user of the premium version. Love the mobile app and can't imagine living without it.

Also added a bunch of my starred songs to the GAF-playlist. Same username as here.
 
eznark said:


The second article makes some pretty interesting claims, but I don't think he is right. For one thing, we don't know what the consumer response in terms of bitTorrent traffic, and dropped subscriptions are for Netflix, so we can't use that as a model. And, it is easier to pirate a album rather than an episode of Mad Men, or a movie.

So, should Spotify try and raise prices, I think it is a fair prediction that more people would drop Spotify than would drop Netflix. I know I dropped Netflix's delivery service, and opted just for streaming, but I did that awhile ago, so the price structure didn't affect me the way it did others.

Also, if you look at the relative power iTunes has had over the music industry, I think it is safe to say that Spotify will develop that clout as well. So, as he makes an arguement that the industry would require increased prices, I think Spotify could have a large enough sphere of influence to prevent that.
Just my opinion. I think the author of that article makes some valid points, but ultimately fails at convincing me that he could be right (which he still very well may be.)
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Squall ASF said:
Appreciate the other comments about discovering artists, sharing, etc. For you music white knights, calm down. I didn't say I pirate, I wanted to know what services Spotify provides that downloading doesn't. I've heard Spotify raved by friends and the internet and just wanted to know what services gave it that reputation because so many people torrent so I was curious how this will rival that. I'm not adverse to downloading though, I just don't bother. I buy my favorite artist's albums and can get whatever else from friends. BTW, you support artists far more by going to concerts. Again, thank you to those who gave calm, useful responses.

Calm and useful responses aside, as per of the terms of service we frown on users admitting to and/or encouraging piracy and you can see what the impact of your implication was on the topic of discussion so I hope in the future you will avoid this line of conversation.
 
eznark said:

I think he's overstating the case regarding consumption of music. Yes, songs and albums are re-listened to much more than movies and television shows. But plenty of people watch some movies over and over again, for one. And two, I don't think most people operate under the assumption that music-streaming wholly replaces their permanent music collection. I use Pandora/Spotify/etc. very broadly, to sample different artists. There are *tons* of songs and albums I only listen to once or twice, and if I really love something, then I just go out and buy the damn album eventually. Of course it's convenient when it's already on the service, but it's not like I'd feel like my music library evaporated if the service ever went away.

Streaming is obviously not for collectors or completists. I mean, duh.
 

eznark

Banned
Joe Shlabotnik said:
I think he's overstating the case regarding consumption of music. Yes, songs and albums are re-listened to much more than movies and television shows. But plenty of people watch some movies over and over again, for one. And two, I don't think most people operate under the assumption that music-streaming wholly replaces their permanent music collection. I use Pandora/Spotify/etc. very broadly, to sample different artists. There are *tons* of songs and albums I only listen to once or twice, and if I really love something, then I just go out and buy the damn album eventually. Of course it's convenient when it's already on the service, but it's not like I'd feel like my music library evaporated if the service ever went away.

Streaming is obviously not for collectors or completists. I mean, duh.

They are both obviously overstating their case for effect. They bring up interesting points, I thought though. I lean to the "itunes killer" myself, but I've been using a sub service since Rhapsody first hit like a decade ago.
 

The Crimson Kid

what are you waiting for
CzarTim said:
I've always felt like musicians should make their money from touring and look at albums as promotions for the tours.

Musicians should be able to make a decent living without subjugating themselves to life as a glorified minstrel performer. That used to be the case.

Every development in music consumption in the past 15 years has been great for consumers and for corporations, but terrible for musicians.

There's no reason for many people to support artists when they can hear entire albums for free on Spotify. Also, since most people will not pay Spotify, they will hear a poor quality version of the album. None of that is good for musicians.

Albums used to be carefully considered works of art. IF albums have truly been relegated to be "promotional material," then the economics of being a professional musician are truly fucked. Who would be willing to invest their time and money into creating an album if they aren't willing to drop everything else in their life to go touring for months?

I remember reading a few years ago about the rise of self-recorded albums due to cheaper recording equipment and talented individuals being able to make albums on their own time. The economics of the music industry since then have killed these people from being able to record an album in between their job and family stuff.

Are these people not worthy of financial success for the art they've created, even though they don't want to drop everything in their life to go tour?
 

eznark

Banned
The Crimson Kid said:
Are these people not worthy of financial success for the art they've created, even though they don't want to drop everything in their life to go tour?

No matter what endeavor you choose, if you aren't willing to take the steps necessary to gain financial success then no, you aren't worthy of it.
 
The Crimson Kid said:
Musicians should be able to make a decent living without subjugating themselves to life as a glorified minstrel performer. That used to be the case.

Every development in music consumption in the past 15 years has been great for consumers and for corporations, but terrible for musicians.

There's no reason for many people to support artists when they can hear entire albums for free on Spotify. Also, since most people will not pay Spotify, they will hear a poor quality version of the album. None of that is good for musicians.

Albums used to be carefully considered works of art. IF albums have truly been relegated to be "promotional material," then the economics of being a professional musician are truly fucked. Who would be willing to invest their time and money into creating an album if they aren't willing to drop everything else in their life to go touring for months?

I remember reading a few years ago about the rise of self-recorded albums due to cheaper recording equipment and talented individuals being able to make albums on their own time. The economics of the music industry since then have killed these people from being able to record an album in between their job and family stuff.

Are these people not worthy of financial success for the art they've created, even though they don't want to drop everything in their life to go tour?

Technically, musicians have only been able to rely heavily on the purchase of recorded music for the last 50 years or so, and that's without conceding that albums have lost relevance in the last decade. An album is a fairly young art form offshoot and--as much as I loooove a well-constructed one--it is not some kind of Constitutionally-protected primary source of revenue.

But I am not a professional musician so I would be curious to hear from some. (And maybe you are!) Because my impression was that unless you really hit the jackpot with a platinum record, recording contracts were rarely good for anyone but the record company to begin with.

Also wtf at "glorified minstrel performer"?? There are plenty of musicians who are only in it for the thrill of live performances. Most of them, I'd wager.
 
I'm having a problem with starring tracks. I click the star that appears when you hover over the speaker icon, but when I go to my starred music, it's empty. Am I missing something? I'm a free user ATM, so maybe that's it?

EDIT: Never mind. It seems to be working now. Just everything I starred the other day is gone. Whatever.
 
Couldn't you also argue that music is an art, and artists aren't doing it for the money, but rather for their work to be exposed to the greatest amount of people?

Under that philosophy, people who are just looking to make some money off limited musical talent, without putting forth the effort a musician who would call himself an artist would, become subjected to the laws of supply and demand. Which points to consumerism, and the way they have influenced the industry.
 

Korey

Member
eznark said:
The thing about the bait and switch price thing, that's the great thing about a rental service: you can instantly quit at any time and not lose anything. Just move on to the next new or cheaper competitor which there undoubtedly will be.

That's exactly what several of my friends did when Netflix raised their prices.

In my opinion, the future of music is rental/free. I love the idea of not having a music collection. I just want to listen to whatever I want, however much I want, and not worry about where or how.
 

dvdjamm

Member
How do I find certain kinds of playlists? I want a good playlist of reggae songs...

Edit: Thanks,CzarTim...I should read each post instead of trying to skim through it,lol
 

iavi

Member
I've been using Spotify, and I've got to say; this 'Related Artist' search seems leagues better than the option present in either Itunes or Last.FM. THEY ARE ACTUALLY SIMILAR WHEN YOU LOOK. crazy.
 

RDreamer

Member
Korey said:
The thing about the bait and switch price thing, that's the great thing about a rental service: you can instantly quit at any time and not lose anything. Just move on to the next new or cheaper competitor which there undoubtedly will be.

That's exactly what several of my friends did when Netflix raised their prices.

In my opinion, the future of music is rental/free. I love the idea of not having a music collection. I just want to listen to whatever I want, however much I want, and not worry about where or how.

Yeah, the thing is with Netflix there really aren't that many competitors. With Spotify there's Rhapsody, Rdio, Mog, Pandora, Last.fm, etc all kind of doing the same sort of thing (well, Okay Rhapsody, Rdio and Mog are. the others are a bit different). So I think you'd be pretty safe moving to another one.

Personally, I'm an avid music collector, but I've slowed down a ton since subscribing to a music service (rhapsody). I almost do think of it as my music library. But if they up the price too much then oh well, I still feel the price was well worth it for music discovery. I've heard so much stuff I didn't know I'd like in the time I had my subscription that it's been beyond worth the price.
 

SoulPlaya

more money than God
Can someone help me here? I installed it yesterday, used it, and today, I can't seem to find it on my computer.
 
So I signed up my gf to a free account. I watch her fire up the same Spotify install on my pc and see a tab for Artist Radio. I'm to assume that's like Pandora? Anyways, I go back and login and the Artist Radio tab disappeared. Hard to believe that the freebies would get that over Premium subscribers, right?
 
I love this service. I'm listening to so many albums and songs I've been told about but never listened to before. Like this morning it's Megadeath's "Peace Sells....But Who's Buying"
 

kamspy

Member
Does anyone know if there's a way to get a radio playlist on Spotify? By radio I mean just a mix of songs. I subscribe to Rhapsody right now and the wife really uses the radio feature a lot when she's doing housework.

I noticed those links early for Top 40, Pitchfork over 80 etc. etc. But is there a link that you can plug in to make to play random popular songs?
 

Antagon

Member
kamspy said:
Does anyone know if there's a way to get a radio playlist on Spotify? By radio I mean just a mix of songs. I subscribe to Rhapsody right now and the wife really uses the radio feature a lot when she's doing housework.

I noticed those links early for Top 40, Pitchfork over 80 etc. etc. But is there a link that you can plug in to make to play random popular songs?

There's a radio function but I think it's only in Unlimited and Premium. Let's you pick genres and decades. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I guess it should suffice for you.
 

Manager

Member
kamspy said:
Does anyone know if there's a way to get a radio playlist on Spotify? By radio I mean just a mix of songs. I subscribe to Rhapsody right now and the wife really uses the radio feature a lot when she's doing housework.

I noticed those links early for Top 40, Pitchfork over 80 etc. etc. But is there a link that you can plug in to make to play random popular songs?

See the playlist links in the OP, it will create similar to it (generate playlist/queue). Random popular songs would be the "Most played" top-100 list, or you could search for "Best of the xxxx´s" playlists in the databases.

Antagon said:
There's a radio function but I think it's only in Unlimited and Premium. Let's you pick genres and decades. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I guess it should suffice for you.

Apparently it's not available to anyone in the US due to licensing:
But thanks to licensing issues, American users won't get to experience Artist Radio, at least for now.

“The lack of a radio feature for the time being is a factor of licensing agreements with the rights holders, but it will eventually be available,” a member of the Spotify support team told Kurt Hanson's RAIN newsletter.
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011...ailable-in-eu-pandora-like-artist-radio-.html

Jeels said:
Is there a way to pull up a platlist with just your starred songs?

Create a new playlist, ctrl+a mark all Starred songs, drag-and-drop into your new playlist.


Outdoor Miner said:
So I signed up my gf to a free account. I watch her fire up the same Spotify install on my pc and see a tab for Artist Radio. I'm to assume that's like Pandora? Anyways, I go back and login and the Artist Radio tab disappeared. Hard to believe that the freebies would get that over Premium subscribers, right?

It could think you're based in Europe at first, when it did the IP check when you fired it up the first time it might have realized you're in the US. Then limiting you the next time you login.
 
Damn her account still has Artist Radio. So jealous. I'm positive that will come over for all US users soon enough though. 'Til then I have Spotibot.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Spotify busted me for accessing the service from Canada and asked me to update my address

So I just reconfirmed my address as being in California and I seem to be good to go. The gravy train continues.
 

Manager

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Spotify busted me for accessing the service from Canada and asked me to update my address

So I just reconfirmed my address as being in California and I seem to be good to go. The gravy train continues.

Did you get it around the launch? If so, it may have something to do with the 14 days re-activation period (just like offline playlists) since that was 14 days ago. I think I remember someone else having to do that every 14th day before, but that was long time ago.
 

JaseMath

Member
I do really like Spotify, but things like ability to purchase songs, the lack of artist radio and the gimped search function (and the need for work-arounds) seem like huge missed opportunities. If they don't fix these issues, I might end up going back to Rdio.
 

Shurs

Member
JasonMCG said:
I do really like Spotify, but things like ability to purchase songs, the lack of artist radio and the gimped search function (and the need for work-arounds) seem like huge missed opportunities. If they don't fix these issues, I might end up going back to Rdio.

What's wrong with search? It seems to work fine for me.
 

JaseMath

Member
Shurs said:
What's wrong with search? It seems to work fine for me.
I would love an option for more robust searches and suggestions - artist name, song name, users, etc. - since the search seems awful spotty and pretty sensitive where spelling is concerned. Putting artist: or whatever to specify a search is totally inconvenient and stupid, too.
 

Shurs

Member
JasonMCG said:
I would love an option for more robust searches and suggestions - artist name, song name, users, etc. - since the search seems awful spotty and pretty sensitive where spelling is concerned. Putting artist: or whatever to specify a search is totally inconvenient and stupid, too.

Odd. I have just been typing in the artist name without any "artist:" prefix and have had good luck finding the bands I've been looking for.

The "Related Artists" tab is a bit spotty, but I've discovered some new (to me) bands this way, making Spotify worth my time.
 
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