5 ms·

> "Let's shove podcasts down your throat, whether you like it or not" approach Unless I have incorrect data, they have to pay like 70% of their revenue to reco

> "Let's shove podcasts down your throat, whether you like it or not" approach Unless I have incorrect data, they have to pay like 70% of their revenue to record labels because they hold the rights. Knowing that, it feels like podcasts was their "big bet" to "own" some content of their own and be able to receive a bigger share? Just an educated guess really on my end.

yreg 4y ago
Not that I want to give them ideas, but what's so fundamentally different about music? How come services can produce exclusive games, podcasts, tv shows and even movies, but not music or books?
- lmm 4y ago
  It may just be culture. Tidal tried to be a music app with exclusives, and got a couple of big names, but people are used to being able to listen to everything on their preferred platform and get annoyed at artists who go for an exclusive. I think games have the same thing to some extent. I would note that there have been some "artists" showing up on Spotify's recommended playlists who haven't been heard of anywhere else, which are suspected of being their "store brand" (where Spotify have presumably paid some session musicians to record the song but keep all the rights).
- hutattedonmyarm 4y ago
  There are plenty of books which are released exclusively on Amazon and/or Audible. For music: Well they tried. Apple Music and Spotify had a little exclusives war in the beginning, but I think neither managed to grab enough that it mattered
criddell 4y ago
It's a similar to Apple's app store model. 70% gets passed on to whomever owns the rights and it is often a record company, but not always. As I understand it, some artists (like Paul Simon) own the rights to their music. Sony Music owns 2.5% of Spotify and Universal Music owns 3.5%. I sometimes wonder if those publishers have made more money on the stock or on royalty payments? It also creates a bit of a conflict of interest for the companies in that they benefit in more than one way when by getting their artists on Spotify.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  I do not think anyone has earned much money on Spotify stock except the earliest investors: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SPOT/spotify-technology/market-cap https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SPOT/spotify-techn...
  - criddell 4y ago
    The record companies were early investors. As I understand it, Spotify gave the big record companies pre-IPO stock in exchange for putting their catalogs on the service.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      That makes sense. I can see record companies wanting Spotify to exist just to have an additional customer to help negotiate with Apple/Amazon/Google.
aeturnum 4y ago
I totally get why they wanted to do it - but I also found their integration into the UI off-putting. The patterns of listening to podcasts and songs are just so different and they offered little support on mixing the two (no separate queues, etc). It felt very half-baked from a UI / UX perspective.
DrJokepu 4y ago
I'm an executive in the music industry and I'm familiar with the details of the situation. I can't talk about the specifics, but I can tell you that your guess is very close to the reality. There is one additional twist, but you really have to understand how the music industry works to guess it.
- distances 4y ago
  How an industry works is not such a secret that you can't talk about it anonymously in a forum.

yreg 4y ago

Not that I want to give them ideas, but what's so fundamentally different about music? How come services can produce exclusive games, podcasts, tv shows and even movies, but not music or books?

lmm 4y ago
It may just be culture. Tidal tried to be a music app with exclusives, and got a couple of big names, but people are used to being able to listen to everything on their preferred platform and get annoyed at artists who go for an exclusive. I think games have the same thing to some extent. I would note that there have been some "artists" showing up on Spotify's recommended playlists who haven't been heard of anywhere else, which are suspected of being their "store brand" (where Spotify have presumably paid some session musicians to record the song but keep all the rights).
hutattedonmyarm 4y ago
There are plenty of books which are released exclusively on Amazon and/or Audible. For music: Well they tried. Apple Music and Spotify had a little exclusives war in the beginning, but I think neither managed to grab enough that it mattered

criddell 4y ago

It's a similar to Apple's app store model. 70% gets passed on to whomever owns the rights and it is often a record company, but not always. As I understand it, some artists (like Paul Simon) own the rights to their music. Sony Music owns 2.5% of Spotify and Universal Music owns 3.5%. I sometimes wonder if those publishers have made more money on the stock or on royalty payments? It also creates a bit of a conflict of interest for the companies in that they benefit in more than one way when by getting their artists on Spotify.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
I do not think anyone has earned much money on Spotify stock except the earliest investors: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SPOT/spotify-technology/market-cap https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SPOT/spotify-techn...
- criddell 4y ago
  The record companies were early investors. As I understand it, Spotify gave the big record companies pre-IPO stock in exchange for putting their catalogs on the service.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    That makes sense. I can see record companies wanting Spotify to exist just to have an additional customer to help negotiate with Apple/Amazon/Google.

aeturnum 4y ago

I totally get why they wanted to do it - but I also found their integration into the UI off-putting. The patterns of listening to podcasts and songs are just so different and they offered little support on mixing the two (no separate queues, etc). It felt very half-baked from a UI / UX perspective.

DrJokepu 4y ago

I'm an executive in the music industry and I'm familiar with the details of the situation. I can't talk about the specifics, but I can tell you that your guess is very close to the reality. There is one additional twist, but you really have to understand how the music industry works to guess it.

distances 4y ago
How an industry works is not such a secret that you can't talk about it anonymously in a forum.