5 ms·

Quite a while ago. Not sure on the exact time, but judging from this article, I'd guess sometime in 2014 https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-starts-shutting-down-i

by philo23 11y ago

Quite a while ago. Not sure on the exact time, but judging from this article, I'd guess sometime in 2014 https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-starts-shutting-down-its-massive-p2p-network-140416/ https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-starts-shutting-down-its-ma...

hengheng 11y ago
Seems a great growth hack. Too bad it's not more.
api 11y ago
I'd be curious if anyone knows the details about why: complexity, customer complaints, reliability?
- natarius4k 11y ago
  Too much complexity for a world that's moving to mobile clients that can't be active peers of the network.
  - api 11y ago
    Seems to be a pattern: wimpy mobile endpoint devices drive everything to the cloud. If so this is perhaps a dated phenomenon. Moore's Law is still a thing and today's generation of mobile devices are getting fatter and fatter.
    - LeoPanthera 11y ago
      Moore's Law has not been improving batteries, which is the real problem. Mobile P2P nodes need to be awake most/all the time, which is a real battery killer. Modern devices have improved battery life by being asleep almost all the time.
      - api 11y ago
        Depends on what those p2p nodes are doing. We do p2p on mobile but it's to allow the mobile device to act as a client to access an IoT device, not to force the mobile device to act as a CDN node. Spotify was doing the latter, which is more problematic. Moore's Law eventually will matter, since faster and more efficient chips equal the ability to do more with lower power consumption. Batteries aren't getting better fast enough, but power consumption per fixed unit of compute is falling like a rock. As a result "effective battery life" for a given fixed workload is subject to Moore's Law.
    - copperx 11y ago
      The only reason mobile clients can't be peers is due to the metered network usage.
      - dgacmu 11y ago
        data transmission from mobile is energy-hungry. More so than compute.
- mwcampbell 11y ago
  Regardless of why Spotify phased it out, I think peer-to-peer is fundamentally the wrong way to deliver that kind of paid service. If I'm paying Spotify for the service, then Spotify should bear the cost of delivering it. Not me, and not other customers, in the form of increased bandwidth and power consumption.
  - dublinben 11y ago
    Fewer than a quarter of Spotify users are paid users. The P2P model makes a lot of sense for a data-rich service like streaming music, where most of your users do not pay anything.

by philo23 11y ago

hengheng 11y ago

Seems a great growth hack. Too bad it's not more.

api 11y ago

I'd be curious if anyone knows the details about why: complexity, customer complaints, reliability?

natarius4k 11y ago
Too much complexity for a world that's moving to mobile clients that can't be active peers of the network.
- api 11y ago
  Seems to be a pattern: wimpy mobile endpoint devices drive everything to the cloud. If so this is perhaps a dated phenomenon. Moore's Law is still a thing and today's generation of mobile devices are getting fatter and fatter.
  - LeoPanthera 11y ago
    Moore's Law has not been improving batteries, which is the real problem. Mobile P2P nodes need to be awake most/all the time, which is a real battery killer. Modern devices have improved battery life by being asleep almost all the time.
    - api 11y ago
      Depends on what those p2p nodes are doing. We do p2p on mobile but it's to allow the mobile device to act as a client to access an IoT device, not to force the mobile device to act as a CDN node. Spotify was doing the latter, which is more problematic. Moore's Law eventually will matter, since faster and more efficient chips equal the ability to do more with lower power consumption. Batteries aren't getting better fast enough, but power consumption per fixed unit of compute is falling like a rock. As a result "effective battery life" for a given fixed workload is subject to Moore's Law.
  - copperx 11y ago
    The only reason mobile clients can't be peers is due to the metered network usage.
    - dgacmu 11y ago
      data transmission from mobile is energy-hungry. More so than compute.
mwcampbell 11y ago
Regardless of why Spotify phased it out, I think peer-to-peer is fundamentally the wrong way to deliver that kind of paid service. If I'm paying Spotify for the service, then Spotify should bear the cost of delivering it. Not me, and not other customers, in the form of increased bandwidth and power consumption.
- dublinben 11y ago
  Fewer than a quarter of Spotify users are paid users. The P2P model makes a lot of sense for a data-rich service like streaming music, where most of your users do not pay anything.