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Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer
- lihaciudaniel 8y agoWho cares.
- sctb 8y agoCould you please start posting thoughtful and informative comments? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- traek 8y agoSmart move for Spotify, foreboding news for Genius. This is also a cautionary lesson for founders about raising at inflated valuations--Genius's series B raise at close to a $1B post-money val will make it more difficult for them to exit with an acquisition. (In fairness, they completed that round with the intent of "annotating the internet", not becoming the music content platform they've since pivoted to.)
- mattj1 8y agoDidn't it start as a music annotation platform?
- dsnuh 8y agoYes, it was originally called Rap Genius.
- traek 8y agoYes, but the intention was to expand from there to allow community knowledge curation on anything. See Ben Horowitz's note: https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/ https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/ Marc Andreessen's note: https://genius.com/1102682 https://genius.com/1102682
- dsnuh 8y agoYes, I remember they tried to expand, but it didn't catch on. I think it may be because at it's heart Genius feels to me like a skinned/specialized Wikipedia, and Wikipedia already has other information covered. Lyrics are a good fit, because Genius has a format that suits itself well to annotating lyrics, and it is a reliable source for quality lyric content. So many lyrics sites other than Genius are horrible to look at and usually are riddled with ads and popups.
- CPLX 8y agoThe other problem for Genius is that they've never really identified a profitable business at a scale that even remotely approaches their level of hype.
- wgerard 8y agoI'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). The platform works for it, and it feels like a natural transition to go from listening to music to listening to a podcast without leaving the platform. The article even notes it's a higher margin business.
- gakos 8y agoSpotify does have podcasts, including tech ones like a16z and Recode Decode. They even added speed adjustment if you like to listen on hyperspeed like me. https://open.spotify.com/genre/podcasts-page https://open.spotify.com/genre/podcasts-page
- wgerard 8y agoSorry, I meant original podcasts. It looks like they do have some (I see Amy Schumer's is tagged as such), but curious to see if they get into it more heavily.
- gakos 8y agoOh yeah - totally. If they followed the Netflix model of generating great content, they could make a killing (and justify their market cap). Original podcasts would be cool, but even better would be backing artists, especially long tail or emerging bands. Spotify Records?
- hqtitan 8y agoI'm not sure how long they've had them, but I discovered the podcast section sometime in the last six months or so. It's pretty great to go from listening music all day to picking back up on whatever podcast I've been listening to with just a couple of clicks all in the same platform.
- abhishekjha 8y agoThey do have podcasts. Listened to this[0] recently. 0 : https://open.spotify.com/show/1QLjI1ptUhPEIYaaiJgZlh https://open.spotify.com/show/1QLjI1ptUhPEIYaaiJgZlh NYT Article : https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/podcasts/caliphate-isis-rukmini-callimachi.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/podcasts/caliphate-...
- qdigital 8y agoIncredibly surprised it has taken this long. Given the amount of listening data they have I was sure they'd have taken the Netflix route with regards to producing or orchestrating original content (i.e. this producer with these artists + brand partnerships tailored to audience = $$). I'm sure I am simplifying and this is much more complex than that, especially considering the legal maze that is music, but still. Their only innovation seems to have been in bespoke playlist generation.
- nxc18 8y agoIf anyone from Spotify is reading this: I love you, but please please please stop autoplaying videos in my playlists. 1) it makes playback stop when I'm driving. It's hard to get it to start again. If the screen is off, please just play the song in place of the video. 2) the UI goes away when a video is playing so there's no way to see the playlist without jumping through hoops. 3) it wastes data. My family regularly nears the monthly limit, so this really matters to me.