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SPOTIFIED: A COMEDY IN ONE ACT
With my overall budget slashed, I have been keeping up with a lot of new music via Spotify. As you may know, Spotify comes in two flavors: the basic free version (which is subsidized by ads) and the premium subscription version (which is ad-free).
I use the free version of Spotify. Here's how that's been going:
Me: Oh look, Juliana Hatfield has a new album out. Let's listen to it.
Spotify: Great.
Me: Hey, how do I get out Shuffle Play?
Spotify: That’s for premium members only.
Me: You know, the order of tracks on an album is important.
Spotify: If it’s that important, you’d pay us for that feature.
Me: Never mind, maybe Shuffle Play will make it interesting.
[Three tracks later]
Spotify: Here’s an ad.
Me: Okay, that’s what pays for my free service.
[One track later]
Spotify: Hey, here’s a song from another Juliana Hatfield album.
Me: Thanks, but I’m listening to this album right now. [skip]
Spotify: Cool, here’s a track from someone who kinda sounds like Juliana Hatfield.
Me: No, I’m listening to the real one now. [skip]
Spotify: Okay, back to the new Juliana Hatfield album.
Me: Hang on, you played this track already – I haven’t even finished the album yet. [skip]
Spotify: Okay, because you like Juliana Hatfield, here’s a Frank Black song.
Me: Wait, what?
Spotify: He’s alternative rock from the same era as Juliana Hatfield, see?
Me: I don’t care, I’m listening to THIS album right now, maybe make your recommendations after it’s finished playing? [skip]
Spotify: Okay, you don’t like Frank Black – how about Aquakultre?
Me: Who?
Spotify: [plays Aquakultre song]
Me: In the first place, no – in the second place, this isn’t even the same genre.
Spotify: The recommendation is based on your listening history, not what your listening to right now.
Me: I don’t care, I just want to listen to the new Juliana Hatfield album. [skip]
Spotify: Sorry, you’ve used up your allotted skips for the next hour. Unlimited skips are for premium members only. [Aquakultre keeps playing]
Me: AAAAAARRARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Spotify: Here’s an ad. Next 30 minutes is ad free.
Me: ………………
Spotify: Back to the music. Since you likeD Aquakultre, here’s another artist that sounds like them.
Me: AAAAAARRARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
And so on.
To be fair, this is the mobile app version – the desktop version of Spotify is less of a pain. Yes, there’s ads interrupting the album, but I expect that – I grew up listening to commercial radio, the business model for which is free music with ads. So I’m okay with that. Desktop Spotify will at least let me listen to the album in order and (at least so far) has never tried to jam in songs from other albums or other artists – whereas the free mobile version does the reverse of that.
I’m bamboozled by this.
I mean, I suppose you could say it’s a by-product of designing a music service at a time where albums don’t matter anymore and attention spans are short. But it’s not just that.
What really strikes me is Spotify’s approach to the freemium business model. The usual practice is to make the free version of the app basic but worthwhile enough to keep people using it (which is what the advertisers want), after which you can tease premium features to upsell them to an even better experience.
Spotify’s version of this is to take most the very basic things that people expect a music service and its music player to do, and put it all behind a paywall – with the apparent logic that if you make music fans hate the free service enough, they’ll be so desperate they’ll subscribe to premium.
In fact, Spotify goes out of its way to make the free experience suck – poorer sound quality, only six skips allowed per hour, LPs played out of order with recommendations jammed in, etc.
So basically, instead of the typical freemium pitch (“If you like that, you’ll love this”), Spotify’s pitch is “If you hate this, pay up, freeloader.”
Again, this is the mobile version, but mobile is often the most convenient way to listen to music. And the clever clogs at Spotify seem to know that.
All I can say is that if all this is supposed to drive me to a premium subscription, it ain’t working.
FULL DISCLOSURE: While we’re at it, I should admit here that I have other issues with Spotify, like its compensation scheme for artists, which is kind of a rip-off for them, and it's one reason I’ve avoided Spotify up to now. My rationale now is that, since I can’t afford to buy music right now, Spotify is currently the only way artists will make any money from me. I’d buy their music if I could, but I can’t, so this is as good as it gets. I figure it’s better for them to get at least a little money via streaming rather than none at all via CDs or downloads. Hopefully one day I’ll win the lottery or achieve full time employment again and I can go and buy the albums I’ve been enjoying.
Freedom isn’t free,
This is dF
I use the free version of Spotify. Here's how that's been going:
Me: Oh look, Juliana Hatfield has a new album out. Let's listen to it.
Spotify: Great.
Me: Hey, how do I get out Shuffle Play?
Spotify: That’s for premium members only.
Me: You know, the order of tracks on an album is important.
Spotify: If it’s that important, you’d pay us for that feature.
Me: Never mind, maybe Shuffle Play will make it interesting.
[Three tracks later]
Spotify: Here’s an ad.
Me: Okay, that’s what pays for my free service.
[One track later]
Spotify: Hey, here’s a song from another Juliana Hatfield album.
Me: Thanks, but I’m listening to this album right now. [skip]
Spotify: Cool, here’s a track from someone who kinda sounds like Juliana Hatfield.
Me: No, I’m listening to the real one now. [skip]
Spotify: Okay, back to the new Juliana Hatfield album.
Me: Hang on, you played this track already – I haven’t even finished the album yet. [skip]
Spotify: Okay, because you like Juliana Hatfield, here’s a Frank Black song.
Me: Wait, what?
Spotify: He’s alternative rock from the same era as Juliana Hatfield, see?
Me: I don’t care, I’m listening to THIS album right now, maybe make your recommendations after it’s finished playing? [skip]
Spotify: Okay, you don’t like Frank Black – how about Aquakultre?
Me: Who?
Spotify: [plays Aquakultre song]
Me: In the first place, no – in the second place, this isn’t even the same genre.
Spotify: The recommendation is based on your listening history, not what your listening to right now.
Me: I don’t care, I just want to listen to the new Juliana Hatfield album. [skip]
Spotify: Sorry, you’ve used up your allotted skips for the next hour. Unlimited skips are for premium members only. [Aquakultre keeps playing]
Me: AAAAAARRARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Spotify: Here’s an ad. Next 30 minutes is ad free.
Me: ………………
Spotify: Back to the music. Since you likeD Aquakultre, here’s another artist that sounds like them.
Me: AAAAAARRARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
And so on.
To be fair, this is the mobile app version – the desktop version of Spotify is less of a pain. Yes, there’s ads interrupting the album, but I expect that – I grew up listening to commercial radio, the business model for which is free music with ads. So I’m okay with that. Desktop Spotify will at least let me listen to the album in order and (at least so far) has never tried to jam in songs from other albums or other artists – whereas the free mobile version does the reverse of that.
I’m bamboozled by this.
I mean, I suppose you could say it’s a by-product of designing a music service at a time where albums don’t matter anymore and attention spans are short. But it’s not just that.
What really strikes me is Spotify’s approach to the freemium business model. The usual practice is to make the free version of the app basic but worthwhile enough to keep people using it (which is what the advertisers want), after which you can tease premium features to upsell them to an even better experience.
Spotify’s version of this is to take most the very basic things that people expect a music service and its music player to do, and put it all behind a paywall – with the apparent logic that if you make music fans hate the free service enough, they’ll be so desperate they’ll subscribe to premium.
In fact, Spotify goes out of its way to make the free experience suck – poorer sound quality, only six skips allowed per hour, LPs played out of order with recommendations jammed in, etc.
So basically, instead of the typical freemium pitch (“If you like that, you’ll love this”), Spotify’s pitch is “If you hate this, pay up, freeloader.”
Again, this is the mobile version, but mobile is often the most convenient way to listen to music. And the clever clogs at Spotify seem to know that.
All I can say is that if all this is supposed to drive me to a premium subscription, it ain’t working.
FULL DISCLOSURE: While we’re at it, I should admit here that I have other issues with Spotify, like its compensation scheme for artists, which is kind of a rip-off for them, and it's one reason I’ve avoided Spotify up to now. My rationale now is that, since I can’t afford to buy music right now, Spotify is currently the only way artists will make any money from me. I’d buy their music if I could, but I can’t, so this is as good as it gets. I figure it’s better for them to get at least a little money via streaming rather than none at all via CDs or downloads. Hopefully one day I’ll win the lottery or achieve full time employment again and I can go and buy the albums I’ve been enjoying.
Freedom isn’t free,
This is dF
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I'm not too familiar with the artist rip-offs, although I've heard it argued both ways.
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