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It's been frustrating watching the Spotify (and general movement) with podcasts fragmenting and going exclusive. Spotify won with music because it improved upon
by jdprgm 5y ago
It's been frustrating watching the Spotify (and general movement) with podcasts fragmenting and going exclusive. Spotify won with music because it improved upon the existing state of listening to music and offered a free or cheap solution that was even a compelling alternative to piracy.
Podcasts for the most part were in the ideal state for consumers, almost always free and mostly client independent distributed w/ RSS. I don't think there is much of any argument that Spotify can improve that state for consumers by taking a podcast exclusive. These deals are just payouts for the hosts not investments that make the shows better. Most even very successful podcasts likely have low opex (some exceptions like NYT Daily) and don't benefit from a big pile of cash.
On a different note regarding the Rogan Deal, Spotify took ages to add video streaming support on Apple TV (main way I would catch Rogan) which basically caused me to quit casual watching. They also only recently added offline playback for Apple Watch and even then it's premium exclusive and requires manual downloading of eps. I don't understand at all why an enormous company like Spotify is so neglectful of the entire apple ecosystem.
- Covzire 5y agoThe ads on Spotify for paying US users is what keeps me off of it for the most part. You can fast forward but it's a gigantic pain in the ass. Their UX is awful too compared to a simple web app, they should just clone a basic Youtube/Odysee/Rumble functionality for their video side.
- dadver 5y agoWait, -paying- users get ads in the US? Then why do they pay?
- Covzire 5y agoI'm assuming for the privilege of fast forwarding them, but I'm not sure, it's probably the biggest reason I can't feel any affinity for the platform at all. I'm happy to chip in for the service like i do with Youtube Premium, but come on. They're not short ads either, and I think most of them are put in place by Joe Rogan himself because they're often him going on for 2-3 minutes.
- dntrkv 5y agoIt's only the ads that the podcasters put in themselves. They are not the Spotify ads.
- ub99 5y agoThis makes me wonder… would Spotify allow ads in music? Can I upload a music track that has an ad in the middle? Hmm…
- kingofpandora 5y agoI don't have Spotify, but check if The Who Sell Out is there since that has ads in it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_Sell_Out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_Sell_Out
- ub99 5y agoPretty sure they used fake ads, but it’s a good precedent anyway. Edit: and yes the album is available on Spotify in full.
- FillardMillmore 5y agoThe whole album was supposed to be a play on a pirate radio station if memory serves, and a damn good one at that. Probably my favorite Who album honestly (besides Live at Leeds, of course).
- cubano 5y agoUhhhh I'd have to take Quadraphenia in any best Who album list...I think I've bought it at least 6 times in like 4 formats and I can still listen to it end-to-end without effort.
- serf 5y ago> Pretty sure they used fake ads, but it’s a good precedent anyway. the ads aren't fake.. well, not all of them -- they're included ironically -- and many aspects of that album generated legal issues for the band.[0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_Sell_Out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_Sell_Out
- ub99 5y agoI am surprised you are getting downvoted. Very long ad breaks on paid accounts are unacceptable and the reason I refuse to listen to this podcast.
- ct0 5y agoI see a potential feature that spotify could differentiate themselves. Pre-marked ads, and a setting to skip automatically.
- xxpor 5y ago>You can fast forward but it's a gigantic pain in the ass. Does Spotify not support FF == skip 10 seconds forward that every other podcast player does? I have genuinely no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me.
- ub99 5y agoThese long ads are actually separate tracks, so you can just skip to the end. The pain in the ass aspect comes mostly from the fact that not everyone has the app open in front of them.
- xxpor 5y agoyeah, I was thinking about that in my own podcast listening. For me I guess the reason why I don't care as much is I'm always using headphones with controls or in the car where it's a simple steering wheel button press.
- gmueckl 5y agoWhen playing podcasts, Spotify skips 15 seconds forwards or backwards. When playing music, it skips to the next track or the start of the current track. But you still have to actively skip ads, which is annoying.
- treesknees 5y agoEspecially while driving. I've shut off podcasts because I can't sit there listening to the same 2 minute interview-style ad for the 10th time.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- handmodel 5y agoI think the model of giving away Joe Rogan to all users of Spotify (even if not paying subscribers) is worst of all worlds from a business POV. Think how many people still subscribe and pay over ten dollars a month to listen to Howard Stern. I subscribe to a few podcasts on patreon at $5 just for the few bonus episodes. And I have trouble believing the ad revenue Spotify gets for this is anywhere close to what paying customers could be for them.
- hombre_fatal 5y agoWell, maybe it's more strategic than just short-term dollars and cents. For example, there must be a lot of value in training people to use Spotify for podcasts at all, starting with the biggest podcast in the world. As more people use Spotify for podcasts, Spotify gets more and more power for future exclusivity negotiations. Spotify was certainly just a music app for me until I had to start using it to listen to Joe Rogan, and it seems reasonable that the Joe Rogan move was to create this transition in Spotify users. They clearly don't just want to be a music app.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoIn Joe Rogan's case, I doubt people would pay. Then again, I haven't been able to understand his success. I cringe when he calls himself a Comedian. I cringe when he talks science. (Always felt someone should sit down with him and explain The Placebo Effect, and The Scientific Method, and what goes into a good Clinical study. I would be shocked if he ever even took Psy 101.) Is it the upfront pot use that garners so many admirers? He does know his MMA though. I have enjoyed his interviews, but it's the guests I find interesting.
- simonh 5y agoOh well, if he didn’t take Psy 101 that does it for me.
- Dove 5y agoHe's honest, curious, talks to interesting people, and uncensored. He's a great window into perspectives on life I don't have, and doesn't feel coercive or pushy when I disagree. I've learned a lot from him, and don't honestly have much of a substitute. Mind you, with the Spotify transition, I don't really trust some of those points anymore and haven't really listened since.
- seanf 5y agoI don't understand at all why an enormous company like Spotify is so neglectful of the entire apple ecosystem. Part of this might be the legal friction between Spotify and Apple in the past. Here's an article that describes a coalition that Epic Games, Spotify, and others formed just last year to counter Apple's platform cut. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/epic-spotify-and-others-take-on-apple-with-coalition-for-app-fairness/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/epic-spotify-and-oth...
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- notRobot 5y agoSpotify sucks on Android too - so idk what they think they're doing. I think iOS (specifically just iPhone) is the only place where they appear to work on improving their app.
- smolyeet 5y agoI don't think so, least in part. Spotify is continuously petty against apple (for good reason) but their users always have to pay the price and not have features or get them super late. The Spotify app on an Android is pretty good and can't really notice too much difference upon switching back. They've really downsized their app a lot across all three platforms.
- gsich 5y agoPodcasts without RSS are not podcasts. Sure you can have several distribution methods, but if not one of them is RSS ...
- mastrsushi 5y ago> Podcasts without RSS are not podcasts The rest of the world seems to think otherwise….
- gsich 5y agoGood thing that technical issues are not up to popularity contests.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 8bitsrule 5y agoResisting having everything pulled back into the advertising maelstrom that consumed Cable TV, even dented NPR, means ignoring their never-ending moves to drag everything into their gutter. Sorry, f*kers, calling something a podcast doesn't make it so. I quit Cable because of the ads. Great films chopped into mincemeat! Never going back. No RSS, no subscription. Requests for Patreon donations, no problemo.
- polote 5y ago> These deals are just payouts for the hosts not investments that make the shows better Honestly I don't think Spotify bought podcasts to make money from it, they just want people to associate the word "podcast" with the app Spotify. And so far that works because no other app gained significant momentum. The fact that less people watch the show is almost irrelevant
- pavedwalden 5y agoInteresting way of looking at it. I don't know if the marketing value alone could justify the $100m price, but when you think about a 30 second Super Bowl ad being $6m and compare that to all the discussion and news coverage generated by the Rogan deal... yeah I guess it was a pretty effective way of letting the public know they can listen to podcasts on Spotify.
- dalbasal 5y agoIt's all competition for monopoly. No one "owned" podcasting, like itunes own streaming music and youtube own free-to-air TV. Spotify is trying to be the one that owns it. They bought exclusivity to as many top podcasts as they could in order to start centralizing podcasting on their platform. Eventually enough momentum shifts, and all the other podcasters have to go where users go, spotify. They may or may not succeed. Either way, it's not just "buying premium content." It's an attempt to seed a monopoly. I doubt that what they spent is even theoretically justifiable as a self contained business proposition. The whole thing is quite sad. Podcasts are/were one the the free digital medias. No mediation. Standard protocol. The client is just a client. No one tells you what to say, or controls who listens to what. I wish FB and youtube were that. We the geeks have done a terrible job of defining and promoting digital freedom. Failed to find a way that doesn't sound like a paranoid eff rant. I don't think Joe really understood that RSS is a Free (as in freedom) media, perhaps the last. He probably thought about it as Youtube-vs-Spotify, with Apple and other RSS clients being more of the same.
- jnosCo 5y agoI think you're giving Rogan too much credit if you think he even for a second would care about Freedom while staring at a 9 figure check.
- david38 5y agoHe absolutely does. That paycheck won’t stay that big of his popularity craters.
- NortySpock 5y agoI got the impression it was a lump sum payout, or at least came with golden handcuffs that were purely in terms of "exclusivity and X-podcasts-per-week for X weeks", rather than subscriber count.
- stevespang 5y agoIf he got 9 figures lump sum check he could give a crap if his show flops . . .
- BossHogg 5y agoThe head of podcasting for Spotify published a medium article[0] earlier this year. If you read it you'll see every drawback of rss he lists is actually power in the hands on the consumer. They are actively opposed to openness and most certainly don't want to "improve that state for consumers." 0. https://mignano.medium.com/podcasting-rss-openness-and-choice-50223b1f16d0 https://mignano.medium.com/podcasting-rss-openness-and-choic...
- syshum 5y agoI can not stand Spotify for Podcasts, I am premium member for Music, but I listen to Zero Podcasts on Spotify and do not plan to PocketCasts is FAR FAR better for Podcasts than the spotify app. The Spotify App has been getting worse for music as well, to the point where I am looking at other services. Spotify is trying to be everything to everyone, and instead will end up being nothing to no one.
- ymolodtsov 5y agoPodcasts were nice and free because it wasn't a big industry. It's like the Internet before ads. Nice, cozy, but hardly a place to make a living. Spotify wanted to do for podcasts what YouTube did for videos. I understand it's more complicated, since the growth of YouTube correlated with growing connection speeds that made watching videos online possible at all.