5 ms·

Anyone feel worried about an environment where your competitor products are basically all propped up by big companies who couldn't care less whether they made m

Anyone feel worried about an environment where your competitor products are basically all propped up by big companies who couldn't care less whether they made money as long as they fly low of the anti-competitive radar? Of course your lemonade stand can sell lemonade for a cent a cup if your rich daddy will pay the other 99 cent from his pocket. For eg. Spotify had to lower their price from $10 per month to $15 per month for 6 (family plan) because Google Play Music offered that price point along with YouTube Red. Of course, neither Google nor Apple need to make money from their music services. Funnily or sadly enough this is true for almost everything Google does other than Ads. Most people would agree that Spotify is a better music player while each of Google's music apps are bad in different ways, but online subscription services are a market where people want to nickel and dime.

on_and_off 9y ago
Disclaimer : I worked for one of Spotify and Google competitors. >Most people would agree that Spotify is a better music player while each of Google's music apps are bad in different ways I am not so sure about that. Spotify is on top of its game : adjusting the loudness of tracks, using ogg, .. I am however pretty sure that to almost all the users, it makes no difference. Furthermore, it is very hard to differentiate as a music service. Most of the features are present in all the services (albums, playlists, AI generated recommandations, radios, podcasts, etc) . Regarding the price, it is up to Spotify to start creating its own content in order to make it go down. Right now the real issue IMO is that the majors are dictating an extremely high monthly price for the service.
- rzanella 9y ago
  Spotify's radio is a 10-song loop, another service w/ better radio and same price would definitely steal some users.
  - gizmo385 9y ago
    Pandora?
    - rzanella 9y ago
      Pandora is only available in the U.S. right now
  - TheHegemon 9y ago
    Google Play, for the kind of music I listen to, seems to have the best radio feature.
    - warent 9y ago
      I've always had great results from Google Play Music. There are a couple things that could be improved, but I'm big user of it. Disclaimer: I'm a Google employee (but I've been using Play Music since long before my employment)
- joethebro 9y ago
  I'd argue however that Spotify's song recommendation engine is one of its differentiating factors. I'm always hearing friends rave about how much they love each weeks discovery weekly playlist.
  - on_and_off 9y ago
    AFAIK all of the major players have this feature and even developed it a while ago : Google Music have been displaying some kind of 'I feel lucky' button for ages (it is not random but based on your listens). They also had artists maps years ago. Deezer has its Flow Apple Music has 'for you' Etc .. There are many variations in how these recommandations are surfaced to the user though. I would be hard pressed to recommend one service over another as far as their quality. It is just all over the place depending on your tastes, listening styles and how much new tracks you want to listen to. IMO Spotify has mostly found a sweet spot in how to present these results to the user.
    - farnsworth 9y ago
      Spotify has years of my listening data and preferences, other services don't. So if I compare Spotify's recommendations to others, it will always be better, and I'd have to put in a lot of hours into another service for it to catch up.
    - pitaj 9y ago
      Spotify's is based on machine learning working on the actual audio tracks. It seems to me that Google Play Music's recommendations are based on what artists you like, based on machine learning, but not using the actual music, just pattern matching with other people. I use Google Play Music, and am actually considering trying Spotify to get better recommendations.
      - on_and_off 9y ago
        Do you have sources on this ? Always interested to read more about how these recommendations work.

on_and_off 9y ago

Disclaimer : I worked for one of Spotify and Google competitors. >Most people would agree that Spotify is a better music player while each of Google's music apps are bad in different ways I am not so sure about that. Spotify is on top of its game : adjusting the loudness of tracks, using ogg, .. I am however pretty sure that to almost all the users, it makes no difference. Furthermore, it is very hard to differentiate as a music service. Most of the features are present in all the services (albums, playlists, AI generated recommandations, radios, podcasts, etc) . Regarding the price, it is up to Spotify to start creating its own content in order to make it go down. Right now the real issue IMO is that the majors are dictating an extremely high monthly price for the service.

rzanella 9y ago
Spotify's radio is a 10-song loop, another service w/ better radio and same price would definitely steal some users.
- gizmo385 9y ago
  Pandora?
  - rzanella 9y ago
    Pandora is only available in the U.S. right now
- TheHegemon 9y ago
  Google Play, for the kind of music I listen to, seems to have the best radio feature.
  - warent 9y ago
    I've always had great results from Google Play Music. There are a couple things that could be improved, but I'm big user of it. Disclaimer: I'm a Google employee (but I've been using Play Music since long before my employment)
joethebro 9y ago
I'd argue however that Spotify's song recommendation engine is one of its differentiating factors. I'm always hearing friends rave about how much they love each weeks discovery weekly playlist.
- on_and_off 9y ago
  AFAIK all of the major players have this feature and even developed it a while ago : Google Music have been displaying some kind of 'I feel lucky' button for ages (it is not random but based on your listens). They also had artists maps years ago. Deezer has its Flow Apple Music has 'for you' Etc .. There are many variations in how these recommandations are surfaced to the user though. I would be hard pressed to recommend one service over another as far as their quality. It is just all over the place depending on your tastes, listening styles and how much new tracks you want to listen to. IMO Spotify has mostly found a sweet spot in how to present these results to the user.
  - farnsworth 9y ago
    Spotify has years of my listening data and preferences, other services don't. So if I compare Spotify's recommendations to others, it will always be better, and I'd have to put in a lot of hours into another service for it to catch up.
  - pitaj 9y ago
    Spotify's is based on machine learning working on the actual audio tracks. It seems to me that Google Play Music's recommendations are based on what artists you like, based on machine learning, but not using the actual music, just pattern matching with other people. I use Google Play Music, and am actually considering trying Spotify to get better recommendations.
    - on_and_off 9y ago
      Do you have sources on this ? Always interested to read more about how these recommendations work.