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Does anyone know why Spotify doesn’t pursue name rights or DMCA takedowns in all these OSS projects, as they reverse engineer and use Spotify’s name? Snapchat p

by alpb 7y ago

Does anyone know why Spotify doesn’t pursue name rights or DMCA takedowns in all these OSS projects, as they reverse engineer and use Spotify’s name? Snapchat practices DMCA/copyright for a lot for these sort of projects.

happa 7y ago
Snapchat and Spotify have very different kinds of business models.
dannyw 7y ago
"Laws can definitely help, but it doesn't take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify." - Daniel Ek (Spotify co-founder)
- csunbird 7y ago
  I wish the TV industry can accept way of Spotify is the way to go. Instead, now we have dozens of streaming platforms with exclusive contents.
  - sweeneyrod 7y ago
    They can't, because they have a different business model. For TV content producers, consumers paying for content (with either dollars or eyeballs) is their main source of income. But for musicians, most of their money comes from playing live shows. So Spotify can be much more relaxed about revenue than HBO.
    - pixelrevision 7y ago
      It also costs a good deal less for a band to put out an album than it does to make a season of game of thrones.
      - selectodude 7y ago
        And an album provides far more recurring revenue than a movie does. I’ve listened to my favorite albums hundreds of times. I’ve watched my favorite television shows twice, three times at most.
    - glitcher 7y ago
      Or t-shirts! https://cdm.link/2019/12/tshirts-sell-spotify-doesnt/ https://cdm.link/2019/12/tshirts-sell-spotify-doesnt/
  - hombre_fatal 7y ago
    What's the "way of Spotify" in your post? One single company toll-gating all content? That doesn't sound like the ideal to me.
    - dannyw 7y ago
      Multiple companies having libraries of essentially all content. I can choose between Spotify, Apple Music, whatever Google rebrands their product to every month, etc.
flanbiscuit 7y ago
They seem to have a pretty open api so I'm not sure there's actually any reverse engineering going on. They even allow you to build an app that streams audio in sync with the Spotify app. So it doesn't look they are violating anything in terms of functionality. They might be forced to change their name though (just guessing) https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ios/ https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ios/
- alpb 7y ago
  Those aren’t REST APIs to gather data about songs or your history. They are native APIs to control Spotify app on that machine etc. I think a fair amount of their business relies on gathering data from people and recommending music. They don’t let 3rd parties to do that.
  - sologuardsman2 7y ago
    Perhaps, but they also have APIs for song data and user listening preferences. It's actually pretty impressive how accessible their platform is to developers. [1] https://developer.spotify.com/discover/#recommendations https://developer.spotify.com/discover/#recommendations
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
wodenokoto 7y ago
I imagine that as long as these don’t give non-paying users access to premium features Spotify don’t mind. Any Snapchat client, however, can save snaps. So to ensure none of them does, only the official client should be available.

by alpb 7y ago

happa 7y ago

Snapchat and Spotify have very different kinds of business models.

dannyw 7y ago

"Laws can definitely help, but it doesn't take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify." - Daniel Ek (Spotify co-founder)

csunbird 7y ago
I wish the TV industry can accept way of Spotify is the way to go. Instead, now we have dozens of streaming platforms with exclusive contents.
- sweeneyrod 7y ago
  They can't, because they have a different business model. For TV content producers, consumers paying for content (with either dollars or eyeballs) is their main source of income. But for musicians, most of their money comes from playing live shows. So Spotify can be much more relaxed about revenue than HBO.
  - pixelrevision 7y ago
    It also costs a good deal less for a band to put out an album than it does to make a season of game of thrones.
    - selectodude 7y ago
      And an album provides far more recurring revenue than a movie does. I’ve listened to my favorite albums hundreds of times. I’ve watched my favorite television shows twice, three times at most.
  - glitcher 7y ago
    Or t-shirts! https://cdm.link/2019/12/tshirts-sell-spotify-doesnt/ https://cdm.link/2019/12/tshirts-sell-spotify-doesnt/
- hombre_fatal 7y ago
  What's the "way of Spotify" in your post? One single company toll-gating all content? That doesn't sound like the ideal to me.
  - dannyw 7y ago
    Multiple companies having libraries of essentially all content. I can choose between Spotify, Apple Music, whatever Google rebrands their product to every month, etc.

flanbiscuit 7y ago

They seem to have a pretty open api so I'm not sure there's actually any reverse engineering going on. They even allow you to build an app that streams audio in sync with the Spotify app. So it doesn't look they are violating anything in terms of functionality. They might be forced to change their name though (just guessing) https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ios/ https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/ios/

alpb 7y ago
Those aren’t REST APIs to gather data about songs or your history. They are native APIs to control Spotify app on that machine etc. I think a fair amount of their business relies on gathering data from people and recommending music. They don’t let 3rd parties to do that.
- sologuardsman2 7y ago
  Perhaps, but they also have APIs for song data and user listening preferences. It's actually pretty impressive how accessible their platform is to developers. [1] https://developer.spotify.com/discover/#recommendations https://developer.spotify.com/discover/#recommendations

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

wodenokoto 7y ago

I imagine that as long as these don’t give non-paying users access to premium features Spotify don’t mind. Any Snapchat client, however, can save snaps. So to ensure none of them does, only the official client should be available.