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The other convenience Spotify over Winamp is that you don’t have to find and download MP3s, you can just type something in and 99% of the time just start playin

by evan_ 6y ago

The other convenience Spotify over Winamp is that you don’t have to find and download MP3s, you can just type something in and 99% of the time just start playing it immediately...

Polylactic_acid 6y ago
Not to mention their recommendations which I find to be quite decent.
edogg 6y ago
Napster was pretty close to that
- viraptor 6y ago
  You couldn't play immediately, lots of new releases were fake and artists didn't get anything from it. But that close.
  - rhino369 6y ago
    Napster's assets were sold (eventually) to Rapsody, which operated a "Napster" service that was a lot like spotify.
ngokevin 6y ago
And phones don't have Winamp...what is OP expecting people to do, download MP3s on Napster and sync it with iTunes?
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  Even though it was taken down from the store, you can still sideload a Winamp apk if you really want to
  - samplatt 6y ago
    There's also PowerAmp which (iirc?) was a fork from the apk. It's not perfect, but it's better than most players.
austhrow743 6y ago
I think there's very few people who would fit in to the internet speed range of "capable of streaming music consistently enough to prefer that over downloading" and "downloads slowly". Finding and downloading mp3's isn't a problem.
- stnmtn 6y ago
  If my friend tells me to check out a song or an album, I type in the first word or two of that song or album into spotify and I'm listening to it instantly, whether I'm on my phone or my computer. Do you really think there's no difference there? If you get a text from a friend saying check out this song and you're out and about on your phone, are you really saying that somehow downloading an mp3 to your phone is as easy as spotify?
matheusmoreira 6y ago
I am absolutely sure that searching and downloading/streaming music would be a standard feature of every music player out there were it not for copyright. Spotify's real innovation is not music streaming. That technology is not new in any way. The real innovation is the fact it somehow obtained the licenses necessary to legally stream the music people wanted to listen to.
- evan_ 6y ago
  Which is why the criticism that they “don’t care about music” is so silly- that’s not the thing you make money by caring about. They cared about legal stuff.
dehrmann 6y ago
It's more than just that. Maintaining your personal catalog of <10,000 songs is halfway doable, but it gets pretty hard after that. Spotify does all that for you and even handles things like making sure "ke$ha" and "kesha" both return the same results.

by evan_ 6y ago

The other convenience Spotify over Winamp is that you don’t have to find and download MP3s, you can just type something in and 99% of the time just start playing it immediately...

Polylactic_acid 6y ago

Not to mention their recommendations which I find to be quite decent.

edogg 6y ago

Napster was pretty close to that

viraptor 6y ago
You couldn't play immediately, lots of new releases were fake and artists didn't get anything from it. But that close.
- rhino369 6y ago
  Napster's assets were sold (eventually) to Rapsody, which operated a "Napster" service that was a lot like spotify.

ngokevin 6y ago

And phones don't have Winamp...what is OP expecting people to do, download MP3s on Napster and sync it with iTunes?

Rebelgecko 6y ago
Even though it was taken down from the store, you can still sideload a Winamp apk if you really want to
- samplatt 6y ago
  There's also PowerAmp which (iirc?) was a fork from the apk. It's not perfect, but it's better than most players.

austhrow743 6y ago

I think there's very few people who would fit in to the internet speed range of "capable of streaming music consistently enough to prefer that over downloading" and "downloads slowly". Finding and downloading mp3's isn't a problem.

stnmtn 6y ago
If my friend tells me to check out a song or an album, I type in the first word or two of that song or album into spotify and I'm listening to it instantly, whether I'm on my phone or my computer. Do you really think there's no difference there? If you get a text from a friend saying check out this song and you're out and about on your phone, are you really saying that somehow downloading an mp3 to your phone is as easy as spotify?

matheusmoreira 6y ago

I am absolutely sure that searching and downloading/streaming music would be a standard feature of every music player out there were it not for copyright. Spotify's real innovation is not music streaming. That technology is not new in any way. The real innovation is the fact it somehow obtained the licenses necessary to legally stream the music people wanted to listen to.

evan_ 6y ago
Which is why the criticism that they “don’t care about music” is so silly- that’s not the thing you make money by caring about. They cared about legal stuff.

dehrmann 6y ago

It's more than just that. Maintaining your personal catalog of <10,000 songs is halfway doable, but it gets pretty hard after that. Spotify does all that for you and even handles things like making sure "ke$ha" and "kesha" both return the same results.