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Competition = good, one music service to rule them all = bad. Good on Tailor Swift for keeping Spotify on their toes. Good on you for choosing Spotify and not T

Competition = good, one music service to rule them all = bad. Good on Tailor Swift for keeping Spotify on their toes. Good on you for choosing Spotify and not Tidal. Let a thousand musical flowers bloom, and may they forever compete for attention of the bees, giving us more colors and extravagance as time progresses. Please keep making alternative music services and please keep giving us more choice, better quality and lower prices.

jfb 12y ago
Remember how the Hundred Flowers Campaign ended -- with an extinction event. Something not dissimilar is going to happen to these streaming services, because they simply do not differentiate from each other sufficiently.
- nothrabannosir 12y ago
  Oh my, I had no idea about the grim background of that soundbite... You're right, that totally changes what I thought was a beautiful figure of speech.
  - jfb 12y ago
    That's ok; it is a lovely figure of speech.
Retra 12y ago
More choice doesn't mean better quality. It means you are far more likely to make the wrong choice, and that you have to invest more energy into doing so. And that can really eliminate the convenience such a service aims to provide in the first place. Choice is good when the options are differentiated. Like choosing between a CD, an MP3, or a streaming service. It's not nearly so good when you are choosing between Stream A, Stream B, or Stream C.
- Steko 12y ago
  The same argument could be made for cars or airlines or hamburgers. Too much choice, I might chose wrong oh noes you could get locked into the wrong $10 service for a month.
  - Retra 12y ago
    Yes, it could. And I suppose you're going to argue that user experience means nothing? That, as a company, getting "locked into the wrong $10 service for a month" is a perfectly ideal way to treat your customers?
copsarebastards 12y ago
Who said anything about one music service to rule them all? Spotify, iTunes, etc. could all exist and carry all the music, and compete on their software, reliability, etc.

jfb 12y ago

Remember how the Hundred Flowers Campaign ended -- with an extinction event. Something not dissimilar is going to happen to these streaming services, because they simply do not differentiate from each other sufficiently.

nothrabannosir 12y ago
Oh my, I had no idea about the grim background of that soundbite... You're right, that totally changes what I thought was a beautiful figure of speech.
- jfb 12y ago
  That's ok; it is a lovely figure of speech.

Retra 12y ago

More choice doesn't mean better quality. It means you are far more likely to make the wrong choice, and that you have to invest more energy into doing so. And that can really eliminate the convenience such a service aims to provide in the first place. Choice is good when the options are differentiated. Like choosing between a CD, an MP3, or a streaming service. It's not nearly so good when you are choosing between Stream A, Stream B, or Stream C.

Steko 12y ago
The same argument could be made for cars or airlines or hamburgers. Too much choice, I might chose wrong oh noes you could get locked into the wrong $10 service for a month.
- Retra 12y ago
  Yes, it could. And I suppose you're going to argue that user experience means nothing? That, as a company, getting "locked into the wrong $10 service for a month" is a perfectly ideal way to treat your customers?

copsarebastards 12y ago

Who said anything about one music service to rule them all? Spotify, iTunes, etc. could all exist and carry all the music, and compete on their software, reliability, etc.