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Oof. The sole reason I have a Spotify subscription is for its vast dubstep catalog. Checking out my "favorites" playlist today, I hope I don't see half of them

by mvkel 15y ago

Oof. The sole reason I have a Spotify subscription is for its vast dubstep catalog. Checking out my "favorites" playlist today, I hope I don't see half of them gone!

mvkel 15y ago
Yep. Lots of stuff gone. Joker, Mount Kimbie, Luke Vibert, Distance. Huge names, gone. This is why subscription models don't work when you're subscribing to the middleman. If a label suddenly wants to yank their music, they can. It has nothing to do with Spotify remaining solvent.
- gcp 15y ago
  This is why subscription models don't work when you're subscribing to the middleman. If a label suddenly wants to yank their music, they can. Without a middleman, it's going to be a pain to subscribe to multiple labels. It would require vast improvements in protocols/infrastructure in an industry that's extremely slow moving.
  - icebraining 15y ago
    Billing would probably the hardest part - customers won't want to pay different values each month depending on the labels the music they listened to happened to belong, in my opinion. They (We) want flat, predicable bills, and that involves having a middleman acting as a "financial buffer", which charges the same to every client but pays different values to each label.
- matwood 15y ago
  Unless you are dealing with the artist directly, you are always dealing with a middle man. Make no mistake, the current distributors would love nothing more than the ability to cancel rights on any music you already think you own. There is some exec right now looking at video games that phone home before each play and thinking he wants to make that work with the music his company distributes.
  - icebraining 15y ago
    Music that phones home is old news. Windows Media DRMed files had to contact a licensing server to obtain a key to play the files, and this was in 1999.
    - matwood 15y ago
      From the computer yes. But with smart phone usage growing and every music player having wifi now, the idea could work good enough that many people no longer notice. Until of course their music license is revoked.

by mvkel 15y ago

Oof. The sole reason I have a Spotify subscription is for its vast dubstep catalog. Checking out my "favorites" playlist today, I hope I don't see half of them gone!

mvkel 15y ago

Yep. Lots of stuff gone. Joker, Mount Kimbie, Luke Vibert, Distance. Huge names, gone. This is why subscription models don't work when you're subscribing to the middleman. If a label suddenly wants to yank their music, they can. It has nothing to do with Spotify remaining solvent.

gcp 15y ago
This is why subscription models don't work when you're subscribing to the middleman. If a label suddenly wants to yank their music, they can. Without a middleman, it's going to be a pain to subscribe to multiple labels. It would require vast improvements in protocols/infrastructure in an industry that's extremely slow moving.
- icebraining 15y ago
  Billing would probably the hardest part - customers won't want to pay different values each month depending on the labels the music they listened to happened to belong, in my opinion. They (We) want flat, predicable bills, and that involves having a middleman acting as a "financial buffer", which charges the same to every client but pays different values to each label.
matwood 15y ago
Unless you are dealing with the artist directly, you are always dealing with a middle man. Make no mistake, the current distributors would love nothing more than the ability to cancel rights on any music you already think you own. There is some exec right now looking at video games that phone home before each play and thinking he wants to make that work with the music his company distributes.
- icebraining 15y ago
  Music that phones home is old news. Windows Media DRMed files had to contact a licensing server to obtain a key to play the files, and this was in 1999.
  - matwood 15y ago
    From the computer yes. But with smart phone usage growing and every music player having wifi now, the idea could work good enough that many people no longer notice. Until of course their music license is revoked.