Spotify - anyone heard of it?

yeah, sometimes asking people on last.fm works. sometimes they haven't used last.fm in years, just kept it scrobbling away, and don't visit the site let alone answer stuff in their inbox. sometimes it pisses them off, which having been on both sides of this equation I understand

fwiw, i am facebook friends with sobule so i will let you know what i hear

kat i just sent you a webmail

the example I usually bring up in music-canon circles -- and yes, I know I'm repeating myself -- is the tracks from a toni halliday/anka from clan of xymox collaboration that were posted online about a decade ago

(those I think might legitimately be gone on her end, it's just a matter of whether an indeterminate number of people downloaded them)

anyway this is getting way off topic

do we have a thread for like -- most obscure/hard to find/oop album you have?

Mordy this is kind of like that:

Acts that are not on Spotify

and

this is the thread where you post the records you have been looking for over many moons unsuccessfully in the hopes that someone reading ilm might be able to help you out for either sexual favors or

oops I misread yr question, sorry

for fuck's sake, I'm not trying to prove that I am ~*more obscure than you*~ or claim that I am somehow uniquely affected by this, this is just the part of my musical interests that I have to go out looking for in the first place

― katherine, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 2:52 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The biggest single stumbling block for me w/Spotify, which is not Spotify's fault in any way, is my enormous enthusiasm for film scores. This is a genre that lives in a unique licensing tidal zone that ensures CDs go out of print in an eyeblink and legal digital versions either never exist in the first place or disappear without warning. E.G. Jerry Goldsmith is probably the second most famous film composer of all time after Williams and only the scantiest sliver of his stuff exists on Spotify (or emusic or amazon Mp3 etc). (There are dozens and dozens of things there under his artist name but 85% are godawful recreations). (But Morricone, uniquely, is in fantastic shape on Spotify -- there's very few important scores of his you can't hear there).

But what the contract doesn’t stipulate is what Sony Music can and will do with the advance money. Does it go into a pot to be divided between Sony Music’s artists, or does the label keep it to itself? According to a music industry source, labels routinely keep advances for themselves.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8621581/sony-music-spotify-contract

Shocking.

In the wake of Swift’s departure from Spotify, many musicians rallied to her cause, vilifying streaming services that paid a fraction of a penny per play. But this contract makes it clear — the pay per stream rates aren’t the only issue. According to its financial disclosures, the majority of Spotify’s revenue, around 80 percent, has been flowing out the door to the rights holders. "You can’t squeeze blood from a stone," said David Pakman, the former CEO of eMusic and partner at Venrock. "Your beef can’t be with Spotify anymore." At least not with Spotify alone.

tbf the "music industry sources" that The Verge relies on are probably streaming music service guys and not label guys.

they published a copy of the contract

http://www.factmag.com/2015/05/20/new-spotify-now-video-streaming/

Update, 16:21 BST: As you browse content to suit your mood, the new Spotify experience includes video and podcasts – the presentation just showed a Vice News broadcast.

Update, 16:18 BST: Spotify’s VP of user experience Rochelle King has taken to the stage to introduce Spotify’s new playlist feature. It allows you to browse playlists made to match up to the time of day – for example “Morning Commute” or “Evening Commute”.

Update, 16:15 BST: Spotify is introducing a “new Spotify experience” that is “more accessible, personal, and useable than anything in music.”

Update, 16:13 BST: Ek describes a “profound change” in music with discovery and collection happening on our phones. “Soon there will only be listening,” he says.

while i'm glad it's coming out how horrible the majors have been re: streaming, "look what horrible-for-you deals they made us sign for the right to give your music away!" doesn't exactly make spotify look good

idk it's not spotify's job to make sure the label pays its royalties. it sounds like spotify did what it should - negotiated a deal w/ the labels so it could use their music. the labels then used loopholes to not have to pay their artists.

Update, 16:39 BST: He argues that “running to the beat” like “dancing to the beat” is much more fun. He wants Spotify help find music that fits your running pace.

Update, 16:37 BST: Chief product officer Gustav Söderström has taken to the stage, discussing music for running. He says that the music player interface hasn’t changed in 15 years.

Update, 16:34 BST: Ek also promises more “original content” coming soon.

Update, 16:33 BST: Video partners include BBC, ESPN, Vice News, Adult Swim and TED.

Update, 16:30 BST: Broad City has been selected to be part of Spotify’s video content – it doesn’t seem like full episodes, but clips you can watch during the day when you’re at a loose end.

i really don't need any of this garbage guys

so is this all going to break their various apps or what?

Update, 16:45 BST: The big guns are here – Tiesto’s on stage.

Update, 16:44 BST: He says he wants to keep the “runner’s high” going for the whole run – Spotify is having music specially composed for runs.

Update, 16:41 BST: Spotify is going to use the accelerometer in your phone to detect your running pace and find songs to match – he says it takes Spotify just five seconds.

loool

Please less Spotify algorithms trying to figure out what to play and more crowdsourcing.

indie run

carefully curated artisanal exercising is the future

please god just pay some lawyers to innovate this shit into sustainability

lmao @ dumb suits

He says that the music player interface hasn’t changed in 15 years.

idk it's not spotify's job to make sure the label pays its royalties

i agree. but when you sign contracts with major labels that will clearly benefit them at the expense of artists - "loopholes" is a dubious way to describe spotify getting to take 15% off the top before accounting for gross profits, and sony getting millions in ad spots to sell - you don't also get to say you're looking out for artists. again, i'm just saying this doesn't make spotify look good.

Spotify is having music specially composed for runs

Cool are they funding a new Kraftwerk album?

What's wrong with running to music with which you're already familiar?

We haven't changed how we run to music for 15 years, Johnny. It's time for a revolution.

xxxp it makes spotify look good in the sense that they were being blamed for the low royalty rates but it turns out that they aren't the ppl benefiting from those low rates. so they look better. it doesn't make them look like valiant crusaders for artist rights, however -- i negotiate prices for things every day. i buy things from companies and i sell things to companies (nb not in the music industry) and i write + sign lots of contracts for those transactions. i never inquire about how the company allocates its profits among employees - i don't know whether they use a fair profit-sharing program, whether they pay competitive industry rates, or whether they pay adequate commissions. i don't see it as my job to investigate the practices the company pursues w/ its employees. and i don't fault another company for signing a contract w/ Sony that doesn't benefits Sony's artists. that's 100% Sony's job. Not spotify's.

Update, 16:46 BST: Tiësto’s had to create music at a higher BPM than usual so it can work for running.

normal music won't work see?

like if i do a deal with a company and they set up the contract in such a way that they don't have to pay a salesperson a commission on the job - i probably wouldn't even notice! i pay attention to the stuff that matters to my company. xp

i use spotify while driving my car that i use so i don't have to run places

it doesn't make them look like valiant crusaders for artist rights, however -

i really wish you'd stopped here - which is basically what i said - instead of going into some condescending "do you understand how negotiations/capitalism/business works" bullshit that assumes i said something else

but why should they look like valiant crusaders for artist rights? they're not a non-profit pro-artist company.

be careful driving to hiBPM Tiësto
xp

like the criticism of spotify to date has been, ime, 'spotify is not paying artists enough royalties for their songs.' to switch that to 'spotify is not working hard enough to make sure sony is paying artists enough royalties for their songs' is some weird goal post movement.

mordy you're free to look up spotify's old pr defenses about how they're looking out for artists, indie labels, etc but i'm not going to do it for you because you're clearly determined to argue against cases i'm not making

"Crowdsourcing" and "Spotify algorithms" are really two different ways of talking about the same process, not competing alternatives.

Also, they went past it quickly in the presentation, but there's a running mode where it combines tempo-detection and your own listening to match your personal taste to your running pace. You don't have to listen to Tiesto unless you want to. Although I admit that I thought the tempo-morphing running-soundtrack didn't seem like a thing I would personally use, but then I tried it and thought it was actually pretty compelling.

i use spotify while driving my car that i use so i don't have to run places

This is me too, tbh. The last time I ran for any reason was trying to catch my neighbor's dog who'd gotten out of his yard last year.

thing is, however fast you're running, you should always be trying to keep your footstrike rate around 180bpm. having slower music is just encouraging you to run in a less efficient way (if you slow down your cadence, you lose the natural bounce in your run). maybe have calmer sounds for slower running, but you don't really want less bpm (unless it's 90bpm of course) xp

I just want to be able to star songs while running.

Just kidding, I don't run with music.

i would keep stopping to see what the track was, it would be frustrating

I just want to be able to star songs while running.

― Jeff, Wednesday, May 20, 2015 10:03 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I bike to the clip of maron's whining

@Glenn - I'm thinking more of trying to promote playlist-creators as user-curators than just trying to have Spotify guess what I personally would want to hear. For example, there's a dude named Reggie Prim (no idea who he is) who consistently creates great playlists full of new, semi-obscure stuff. I love listening to his playlists, and it seems like Spotify should try to promote people like that who do the work of sifting through piles of new releases to find the good stuff.

Also, I feel like there should be more work done around being able to create stations from your friends list. I'd like to be able to exclude poor-taste-having friends, or organize friends into groups, or trust their taste for one genre but not another. Obv this is not something everyone wants to do, and maybe some of this is being done behind the scenes with thumbs-up/down, but I feel like Spotify has tried to obscure the social aspects of the program lately, especially in the mobile app. Maybe I'm wrong.