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Some comment I read here the other day made me realize it feels like Spotify gets an unusually high share of negative news coverage. Despite this, I personally

by cglong 3y ago

Some comment I read here the other day made me realize it feels like Spotify gets an unusually high share of negative news coverage. Despite this, I personally think it's a really great product and service. Which makes me wonder: Could there be an ulterior motive driving this coverage?

jetrink 3y ago
Spotify is the largest music streamer by far, being over twice as large as its next biggest competitor, Apple Music. It's natural that the company would be the biggest target for criticism, both for Spotify-specific problems and as a stand-in for the whole industry. Also, speaking as a mostly-satisfied subscriber, Spotify still has a lot of issues. The quality of the desktop client in particular is poor and it never seems to improve.
- cglong 3y ago
  This is almost certainly confirmation bias, but I feel like mainstream publications write negatively about Spotify way more than they do iPhone or Google Search. We know both the latter have several issues of their own, but I feel like I learn about most of them via small blogs linked to from here.
  - acdha 3y ago
    I bet there’s also just selection bias: if you don’t use it, you’re more likely to skip a story about and if you use services like Twitter or Facebook they’ll stop suggesting things you don’t click on.
miloignis 3y ago
Two things that make me quite dislike Spotify (as a real actual human ;) is their attempt to monopolize and exclusive-ize podcasts, which I treasure as an open medium, and that they pay less money back to artists (I believe). Perhaps it's my personal bias stemming from what I believe to be legitmate gripes with Spotify, but I feel like perhaps they get more negative coverage because they do negative things.
- jwells89 3y ago
  The way their apps are pushy about whatever tangentially-related audio product they’re decided to burn money on this month also isn’t great. If that stuff really has to be part of the main app, it should be sequestered to its own tab and not be seen unless sought out.
- cglong 3y ago
  I think I read that the "pays less" thing was FUD, but am unable to find it now. Will share if I can dig it up later :) Re podcasts: Very true, I didn't like that push either. FWIW, Spotify recently agreed to let Joe Rogan's podcast be distributed on multiple platforms again.
polishdude20 3y ago
I use Spotify without issue except for one thing that really irks me: Baked in advertisements in podcasts for which I PAY FOR. Like, I literally pay Spotify to not give me ads. And then podcasts come in and not only add in baked in ads at the beginning but also then the host of the show has to do an ad blurb every 20 minutes. Conan O'Brien I'm looking at you.
- deprecative 3y ago
  What's not to understand? Spotify doesn't control the ads baked into content. They control their ads. They can't remove the ads in podcasts. Paying for YouTube Premium doesn't remove ad reads from the creator. Your options are to support the podcast directly for an ad free experience if it exists, listen to the podcast anyway, or stop supporting podcasts that do this by not listening to them.
  - polishdude20 3y ago
    One of the ads I mention are ones that are automatically added by Spotify to the front of the podcast that specifically target me. I've heard them mention where I live many times.

by cglong 3y ago

jetrink 3y ago

Spotify is the largest music streamer by far, being over twice as large as its next biggest competitor, Apple Music. It's natural that the company would be the biggest target for criticism, both for Spotify-specific problems and as a stand-in for the whole industry. Also, speaking as a mostly-satisfied subscriber, Spotify still has a lot of issues. The quality of the desktop client in particular is poor and it never seems to improve.

cglong 3y ago
This is almost certainly confirmation bias, but I feel like mainstream publications write negatively about Spotify way more than they do iPhone or Google Search. We know both the latter have several issues of their own, but I feel like I learn about most of them via small blogs linked to from here.
- acdha 3y ago
  I bet there’s also just selection bias: if you don’t use it, you’re more likely to skip a story about and if you use services like Twitter or Facebook they’ll stop suggesting things you don’t click on.

miloignis 3y ago

Two things that make me quite dislike Spotify (as a real actual human ;) is their attempt to monopolize and exclusive-ize podcasts, which I treasure as an open medium, and that they pay less money back to artists (I believe). Perhaps it's my personal bias stemming from what I believe to be legitmate gripes with Spotify, but I feel like perhaps they get more negative coverage because they do negative things.

jwells89 3y ago
The way their apps are pushy about whatever tangentially-related audio product they’re decided to burn money on this month also isn’t great. If that stuff really has to be part of the main app, it should be sequestered to its own tab and not be seen unless sought out.
cglong 3y ago
I think I read that the "pays less" thing was FUD, but am unable to find it now. Will share if I can dig it up later :) Re podcasts: Very true, I didn't like that push either. FWIW, Spotify recently agreed to let Joe Rogan's podcast be distributed on multiple platforms again.

polishdude20 3y ago

I use Spotify without issue except for one thing that really irks me: Baked in advertisements in podcasts for which I PAY FOR. Like, I literally pay Spotify to not give me ads. And then podcasts come in and not only add in baked in ads at the beginning but also then the host of the show has to do an ad blurb every 20 minutes. Conan O'Brien I'm looking at you.

deprecative 3y ago
What's not to understand? Spotify doesn't control the ads baked into content. They control their ads. They can't remove the ads in podcasts. Paying for YouTube Premium doesn't remove ad reads from the creator. Your options are to support the podcast directly for an ad free experience if it exists, listen to the podcast anyway, or stop supporting podcasts that do this by not listening to them.
- polishdude20 3y ago
  One of the ads I mention are ones that are automatically added by Spotify to the front of the podcast that specifically target me. I've heard them mention where I live many times.