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They want everyone to use the official app so they can advertise to paid users in the future. It's the cable TV model: get people to start paying for subscripti
by rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
They want everyone to use the official app so they can advertise to paid users in the future. It's the cable TV model: get people to start paying for subscriptions by offering to remove ads, then slowly trickle the ads back in.
A paid tier lets you easily identify which of your users have disposable income, and then you can sell the ability to advertise to them at a huge premium.
Spotify's advertisements are quite different because they're basically worthless. Nobody wants to pay money to advertise to broke people. Their free tier exists merely as a funnel; the advertisements function as intentional annoyances to nudge people into paying for a subscription.
- danaris 3y agoIn other words: Because they think they can get 500% the revenue by abusing their users even more, they're unwilling to accept the 450% revenue they could get by making a reasonable compromise. And now they're running the risk of getting 5% the revenue. * No actual numbers were harmed in the making of this post.
- spike021 3y agoThe Athletic (sports news publication) pretty much did this exact thing. Originally marketed that you'll pay for a subscription so you don't get ads, and now for the last year or so they've added multiple ads in every article even though they're already behind a paywall.