A slightly different take: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/spotify-begins-offering-car-thing-refunds-as-it-faces-lawsuit-over-bricking-the-streaming-device/

A slightly different take: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/spotify-begins-offering-car-thing-refunds-as-it-faces-lawsuit-over-bricking-the-streaming-device/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/spotify-begins-offering-ca... Context: https://fortune.com/europe/2023/12/04/daniel-ek-to-slash-bloated-spotify-headcount-by-17-after-blasting-staff-for-doing-work-around-the-work/ https://fortune.com/europe/2023/12/04/daniel-ek-to-slash-blo... https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4444678-joe-rogan-deal-spotify-youtube/ https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4444678-joe-rogan-deal-sp... https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/29/daniel-ek-salary-spotify-ceo-178-million-shares-2024/ https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/29/daniel-ek-salary-spoti... https://musictech.com/news/industry/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-compares-low-royalty-payouts-to-professional-sportss/ https://musictech.com/news/industry/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-co... Spotify is under constant fire due to its low royalty payout rates. Ditto reports that an artist receives $0.003 – $0.005 per stream on average, with 30 per cent of those royalties going to Spotify. Spotify paid out $48 billion to the music industry, paid out $250 million to Joe Rogan and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek cashed out $118.9 million in shares - which combined with the rest of the Spotify executives totaled $250 million in stock sales. Whereas: https://www.wired.com/story/what-soundcloud-created-can-never-die/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-soundcloud-created-can-neve... If Spotify is happy to brick hardware that customers paid good money for, then is it valid to ask if Spotify should be bricked? Is Spotify doing good by its streamers? Is Spotify a positive force for new music discovery and promoting promising talent, or is it embracing long tail effects to maximize its own profits and those of its cronies in the music industry? How does the situation change if everyone cancels their Spotify membership in protest, or sells short the SPOT stock? How does the situation change if the majority of shareholders and paying customers demand that the entire Spotify board is thrown out so that Spotify can be restructured in favor of streamers, employees and listeners? Could a few hackers and makers, perhaps with the help of some benefactors who won the internet lottery, throw together a p2p app that negates the need for Spotify's existence? Are any of these questions unreasonable, given the recent behavior of Spotify? The predictable nature of all of this makes me wonder why the disruption model stops at a handful of people getting morbidly rich at everyone else's expense.