Entertainment For Lively Minds
I 'hate' Spotify
Okay so 'hate' is perhaps too strong a word and I can see what a brilliant idea it is, but, for me, it falls too far short of what it should be.
I find it infuriating that too often when I go to look for a track or an artist it just isn't there. I don't think my tastes are too off the wall or obscure and I realise that it will get better etc. but when I do find an album I want to listen to I get those bloody adverts (forking out a tenner a month is out of the question, mainly for reasons as stated above).
Nine times out of ten I end up shutting it down and using LastFM which may not give me exactly what I want but often gives me something really good which I have never heard before or don't have in my collection.
What does the massive think?
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i hate it too
Coz I can't access it here in the southern hemisphere.
Same.
You Northern Hemisphere types don't know you're born with your Spotify and your i-player....
I think being able to listen to 1000s of songs for free...
is pretty good really.
It's a small price to pay.
It's one of the best things on the internet without doubt.
I've also bought six Lexus cars and subscribed to British Gas twice now!
Given the miniscule
royalties the artist gets every time a track is played "in cd quality", from a musician's perspective, is it much different to file sharing? I know you don't get to own the song, but you can access it every time you're at your computer, so why would you buy it?
So you can listen to it on
So you can listen to it on your MP3 player I suppose, but I never use mine so I would never buy the tracks either.
The year is 1999
In ten years time you'll be able to go on a website, click on the names of millions of tunes and then be able to play them in whatever order you like, for as long as you like FOR NO MONEY AT ALL. And it will be legal. But some people will *hate* it because it hasn't got every record ever made on it. My, we're soon spoiled, aren't we?
the truly wonderful feature of spotify
that no one seems to mention much on this thread is the ability to share new albums, tunes etc... through URL links. And even better sending friends playlists you've made or contributing to collective playlists.
That is a new thing that spotify offers that you can't really get anywhere else.
But Mr Hepworth is spot on it is amazing how fast adverts can annoy you, so that now after months of amazed joy at spotify I now find myself screaming at when obnoxious adverts break in and ruin my pleasures.
That's stupid I know. I should remember how amazing it is.
I would totally go premium though if I could afford to.
As far as I understand it though most people who use spotify do buy or download (either legally or not) the music they like due to having heard it on spotify because they want to play it on their CD players and MP3 players. So spotify seems to me to give artists a bit more in the way royalties, but to be neutral in the main royalties issues: Yes people do use it to try things... whether they buy those things or download them illegally is another question entirely.
I don't understand why people would hate it. Just don't use it if it isn't for you. And yeah there is a lot of stuff missing, both obscure and popular, but I reckon its best to shrug that off and enjoy what is there.
spotify is remarkable
but as ever the question is what about the artists ? how much do they get paid and are they paid enough for the pleasure they bring into our lives ?
Not enough of course............but
I played in a band signed to Stiff in the eighties. At this point in time as the band in question was not Madness,Elvis or The Pogues for that matter we are not enjoying much radio play and we are not actually playing for a living these days so income form the band is practically nothing. We all however are really pleased that our album is now available on Spotify. It's great to point people in the direction if they care to have a listen and you never know somebody might event listen to it who hasn't before.
So we're very pleased - we are also not planning to retire on the royalties either.
Don't be coy...
Can we have a link please..?
Here you go...
http://open.spotify.com/album/73H3qRgQqlUjHpRBRINwy9
Cheers Fraser
I'm at work today and cannot access Spotify here.
Go easy Dr J
It was the eighties!
Beyond The Pale
How exciting! My sister and I bought "Beyond The Pale" when we lived in Ottawa in the early '80s - now I can tell her that I am friends with one of the Passion Puppets! That's ok isn't it? We are all friends here aren't we?
Of course we are....
I would certainly never say I wasn't a friend of a Corleone. If you haven't already check out youtube there's a few bits and pieces on there. I'll send you a PM with some other links.
Excellent!
That would be splendid - thank you.
Consider this
The majority of money most artists make from recorded music is in the form of advances they receive from record companies to make records that nobody buys. In that sense they are getting paid for pleasure that doesn't materialise.
What do you think would be the fairest way to compensate somebody for a play on Spotify? Let's say they get £10 for a play on a radio station that thousands of people are listening to? How much should they get for a play where only one person is listening?
The answer is...
I don't know. Very helpful I admit. The difference is thought that yo can get the tune on demand from Spotify, which you can't from Chris Evans. And you get it in cd quality. So if you do the bulk of your listening at home, why buy the new Richard Hawley album when you can stream it?
I posted this a while back from Robert Fripp's online diary:
"I have had royalties delve into this and they have advised me that Cat Food has been streamed 353 times and Groon 265 times. This has generated a payment to Island Records from Spotify of £1.61p.
"I have been assured that the recordings have been withdrawn from Spotify and steps taken to ensure that this will not arise again."
£1.61 gross on 618 streams, then reduced from gross to net artist royalty on tracks improperly provided by UMG - a shareholder in Spotify? Is this seriously being presented as a future for the industry?"
Without wishing to stir up that Rob Fitzpatrick hornets nest again, although Spotify is legal and file sharing isn't, from the point of view of an artist, I don't really see much of a financial difference. Either way, they're doing much worse than if you went to iTunes or bought the cd. The "righteous anger" over file sharing, widespread endorsement of Spotify. It's an interesting juxtaposition.
Like library books?
I see the Spotify financial model as being a bit like Public Lending Right (I think it's called) for library books. There's a pot of money that gets divided up among all the authors in proportion to how often their books get borrowed. It's only the very popular authors that make any significant money from it.
Come to think of it, Spotify itself is a bit like a library in that you can't keep anything - you have to keep re-borrowing. Then again, it doesn't have fines or lending limits, so it's not a great analogy...
But as you point out
if artists aren't happy with Spotify they can withdraw / limit tracks. You can't do that with illegal filesharers (not easily).
Some artists seem to be leaving back catalogue on Spotify, but limiting / witholding new releases which seems to be wise.
Used well it seems to be a good promotional tool.
its a difficult one
but surely someone must be able to come up with a fair mathematical calculation. I know I am sick of money going to accountants and managers and not those who really deserve it.
Hmmm, fair calculation eh?
How about this: The insane amount of money I spent on overpriced music for over 20 years averages out more fairly over the next 20+ years through resources like Spotify.
Not available in my territory
The whole spotify the noughties thing was a club I couldn't join. Sniff.
I like the way Madness have used it
to promote their new record.
I get 5 tracks as a sampler to listen to for free, then if I want to hear more I can buy the album.
Also I get to dip into their hits as well.
Makes sense to me.
But do Spotifiers stop buying music?
I use Spotify every day, but I still buy downloads and CDs. Island may only have been paid £1.61 for 618 Robert Fripp streams (interesting stat, thanks Molesworth) but maybe a handful of those Spotifiers went out and bought his music as a result, generating more cash.
More popular artists will be being streamed millions of times, with their record companies being paid tens of thousands, and thousands of those Spotifiers buying their music or gig tickets.
Record companies need to look at Spotify as a means of promotion - perhaps like the Madness example Adman gives. If artists and labels like Robert Fripp and Island withdraw tracks they're potentially stopping new listeners from discovering their music.
I'm a premium subscriber
and my download /CD buying has virtually dried up. One download in three months when I would have been on about four or five a month before. I don't really feel any compulsion to buy anymore.
I particularly love having it on my iPhone (the reason I got it in the first place) and playlists.
Ditto for me
I'm premium + iPhone too and it's fantastic. I haven't bought a CD all year and the last download I bought was the Dylan Christmas record! I am listening to much more stuff though. Keith Jarrett today - I'd never have "bought" a record of his on a whim.
I'm a Spotify...
premium subscriber, and I still buy a lot of cds (I thought that I would stop when I joined, but no!) after hearing them on first on Spotify. I'd also like to ask a tech question if I could! Anyone else's Spotify been really bad for the last week? Stopping and starting a lot, to the point where I had to stop using it for a while.
Stops and starts...
I find it worse in the early evening when the USA wakes up and logs on...
yes
I am a subscriber too, and it has been a bit stoppy-starty this last couple of weeks.
At least it's not....
just me then! I presume they'll be working on fixing this in the future? I hate to moan, but paying a tenner a month for broken streaming is a bit much!
Know what you mean...
I tend to put it down to intermittently sluggish broadband rather than Spotify itself, but yeah, it can be frustrating!
I think that...
it might be on Spotify's end if all the complaints on the forums are anything to go by!
Oh OK...
Will stop blaming AOL - although I blame them for *everything* else!!
Cat Food Cat Food
Again. http://open.spotify.com/track/0HkcFJ2mtpIonj1UlOTMhB
Not King Crimson but from a tribute LP. There are loads of such tracks where original tracks are not licensed/available. That's why it is fun to play the "find the worst version on Spotify" game.
To be honest I would pay good money for Groon to be taken off Spotify...
I was in Heaven when
I found 'Flip Flop' by Felix Cavaliere ('Destiny' Album) on Spotify, because (like a lot of other stuff I had on vinyl), it's not available on CD (and it has 2 amazing Steve Khan solos).
It's not perfect, but I've found loads of stuff that I like.
Adverts!
At really inappropriate moments! Like just now between the penultimate and last tracks of 'Selling England By The Pound' by Genesis.
Spoilt the album for me.
Disgraceful!
You should ask for your money back! ;-)
well jeez
..Spotify rocks!
Use it every day, found some tracks from fav artists missing, so i bought a cd on Amazon. Sorted.
I have never illegally downloaded music , now Spotify provides me (legally) my teeange fantasy vinyl record collection-
artists & record companies have signed up for it - everyone's a winner
plus it is improving , buy now links are more available- also keep checking - your missing track may appear as more artists are agreeing to release.
The adverts are irritating
But they're a small price to pay for all that free music.
You can't have the moon on a stick.
Typical.
The moment something is legal, we all think it's fine, even though in reality it's barley different to the illegal thing we were all doing two years ago. Sigh.
Listening to the radio
Isn't Spotify just like listening to the radio, ads and all?
Back in the day, you listened to stuff on the radio, you taped the songs you liked ("downloaded") and if you really liked something you went out and bought the single or LP.
I for one still seem to be doing the same thing. Spotify for a try-before-you-buy, downloads for things I quite like, CDs for those things I really must have.