On the other hand, Spotify spent a lot of money trying to lock up and monetize what used to be one of the most free and democratic mediums in existence (podcast

On the other hand, Spotify spent a lot of money trying to lock up and monetize what used to be one of the most free and democratic mediums in existence (podcasts), have been hostile towards third party devs and manufacturers by way of deprecation of libspotify and refusing to enable interop with devices that don’t implement Spotify Connect, and have been endlessly pushy towards their customers with their endeavors. With that in mind it’s difficult to feel too much sympathy for them. It’s too bad that more open streaming services (which ironically includes Apple Music, which allows third party clients) haven’t usurped it yet.