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This is more or less exactly why Spotify dropped P2P from its platform back in 2014. Good summary here: https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/spotify-removes-peer

This is more or less exactly why Spotify dropped P2P from its platform back in 2014. Good summary here: https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/spotify-removes-peer-to-peer-technology-from-its-desktop-client/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/spotify-removes-peer-to-pe... "This is when the company took advantage of cached songs. Before today’s change, if you streamed a popular song for the first time, the client would download the song from other users, using peer-to-peer. All of this happened in the background, but it greatly contributed to making the overall user experience snappier." "Yet, now that the company has many servers, using peer-to-peer in addition to direct downloads actually adds a bit of overhead. Moreover, the company has to maintain the peer-to-peer code base, and update it with each new version."

black_puppydog 5y ago
> the company has to maintain the peer-to-peer code base, and update it with each new version. Really, that's (part of) their excuse? A bit lame, that. :|
- dymk 5y ago
  What, you don’t think code has maintenance costs associated with it, just because it’s cool?
- powerslacker 5y ago
  I might have agreed with you a few years ago but these days I see Spotify's perspective more clearly. Today I see code as a liability. Like the parts in my car it is eventually going to break in some strange way and cause me a headache. The only real solution is to never drive a car, but that's almost impossible if you want to get around. Same with code, it's a vehicle that gets a business to a destination, which is nice: bit it can also be quite expensive when things go wrong. Efficient engineering teams balance this inherent risk against the needs of the business.
  - bradknowles 5y ago
    Every line of code has a cost. The question you have to ask yourself is whether that cost is worth the return on your investment? No code is less expensive than no code.

black_puppydog 5y ago

> the company has to maintain the peer-to-peer code base, and update it with each new version. Really, that's (part of) their excuse? A bit lame, that. :|

dymk 5y ago
What, you don’t think code has maintenance costs associated with it, just because it’s cool?
powerslacker 5y ago
I might have agreed with you a few years ago but these days I see Spotify's perspective more clearly. Today I see code as a liability. Like the parts in my car it is eventually going to break in some strange way and cause me a headache. The only real solution is to never drive a car, but that's almost impossible if you want to get around. Same with code, it's a vehicle that gets a business to a destination, which is nice: bit it can also be quite expensive when things go wrong. Efficient engineering teams balance this inherent risk against the needs of the business.
- bradknowles 5y ago
  Every line of code has a cost. The question you have to ask yourself is whether that cost is worth the return on your investment? No code is less expensive than no code.