Continuing with Spotify?

I’m not an expert on this but I come from an industry also beset by piracy, the death of physical media and failed attempts at monetising a switch to digital, and it looks to me like there just aren’t enough people willing to pay for subscriptions to make any of these models work. Spotify pays about 70% of music-derived revenue to rights-holders and has made a loss in 14 of the last 18 quarters. They clearly can’t double the amount of money provided per stream, with the model they have now, unless they also pretty much double revenue.

Where they differ from Tidal, Apple, etc, is having the free account option and ad revenue. About 170m people pay for an account and 210m don’t. You could try and force a switch to an all-Premium model but if you lost 80% of the people who don’t / can’t pay, you’d get to the penny-a-stream outcome from the other direction - losing half the streams, without generating any more money for artists.

Rogan and other exclusive podcasts they own the rights to, and that don’t cost incrementally more, the more listeners they attract, probably look like a much more solid basis for a long-term business.

I’d guess music streaming might go in the direction of films, where the finite number of people willing to pay, end up with multiple accounts for much more limited offers (Netflix, Amazon, MUBI, Shudder, etc) depending on their interests and a lot of content falls off the internet.

i think you're right quite frankly. But it's a golden age now!

I’d guess music streaming might go in the direction of films, where the finite number of people willing to pay, end up with multiple accounts for much more limited offers (Netflix, Amazon, MUBI, Shudder, etc) depending on their interests and a lot of content falls off the internet.

aaaaaand just like that we're back to CDs

What are those? Like physical NFTs?

Just saw Nils Lofgren is following suit.

Kinda wish we were increasing in terms of name recognition rather than the reverse, ha ha

https://i.imgflip.com/1zrkp.gif

holy cow that is an amazing gif

Spotify makes him hoppin’ mad!

Apparently related:

I will not be releasing any podcasts until further notice. To our #UnlockingUs and #DaretoLead communities, I’m sorry and I'll let you know if and when that changes.

Stay awkward, brave, and kind. ❤️👊🏼❤️

— Brené Brown (@BreneBrown) January 29, 2022

Get vaccinated Ian https://t.co/MKfrM0M4Yx

— Nils Lofgren (@nilslofgren) January 30, 2022

Lofgren is one of those musicians who'd have a fascinating autobiography.

running youth outreach programmes that teach the young people principles of piracy so I don't have to hear more Spotify news

— Stefan Bielik (@prstskrzkrk) January 29, 2022

Lofgren is one of those musicians who'd have a fascinating autobiography.

Nils famously wrote this jingle in return for lessons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7PEMGuA6tw

Supposedly anyone from DC/Maryland of a certain age knows it by heart.

Just saying though, Rogans deal was signed in 2020 and he began the worst of his COVID transgressions last April. Neil Young incident a weird line in the sand for me, personally. It wasn't based on anything new Rogan or Spotify did, it was based on a gambit Young took that everybody knew would not result in him being dropped.

Why care? If the cause is righteous it doesn't matter what sets it into motion, if it's not than it wouldn't have been at the time, either.

Also tbf there were people who were criticizing Spotify since the Rogan deal in 2020, greeted with "killjoy yells at cloud" energy if not ignored outright. Certainly played into my own decision to cancel last year.

Speaking of which – ILM poster sic has been silent(?) Big “my work here is done” energy!

Also tbf there were people who were criticizing Spotify since the Rogan deal in 2020, greeted with "killjoy yells at cloud" energy if not ignored outright.

as one of the killjoys I can confirm that this has long been the case here and on social media, and it has indeed been infuriating. But I'm sure glad Neil Young was finally able to galvanize so many activists

nice gesture by neil. this will ultimately mean though that we'll have left and right streaming services just cable news stations and acts will target their music to one or the other. won't fix anything.

just *like* cable news stations

In ten years in my state our homes will be individual sized planks of wood floating in an endless sea so ultimately I support whatever fuck yous the good guys have left before Waterworld begins

Framing it as an issue of politics, rather than Spotify’s funding of misinformation, misses the point IMO

i agree but subtleties like that get buried in the tribal war we are undergoing.

oh fuck off with that "both sides" bullshit

maybe things wouldn't be so "polarized" if a suicidal death cult wasn't trying to kill us all

did i say something about both sides? also, would be nice if the death cult were suicidal.

Richard Thompson

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, January 29, 2022 3:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

genuine question. how does "godfather of grunge" fit into richard thompson's music? he has a pretty big catalogue and i've only heard his softer, folkier side

he's got some loud electric music too

XP! RT can really make some noise on the guitar when the mood strikes him.

Wait I thought Neil Young was godfather of grunge

I mean it’s not an exact match, but it was the first name that popped into my head too

all good. i was just wondering to get some recs to listen to

Here’s some grunge! (sort of)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8i61cG8Glk

The long solo that starts around minute 6 is pretty wild

Not really proto-grunge but I'll bet Pearl Jam or Mark Lanegan could do a nice version of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Tc6MCkDdE

Soulseek is still there. The artists don’t get their couple dollars for coffee anymore, but neither do dangerous tech bros get millions.

This here's a company that is panicking.https://t.co/OKrMXl09UI

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 30, 2022

Not sure that’s panic, looks more like halfassed rationalization. I’ll believe it’s panic when they start taking down old Joe Rogan episodes.

xxp or you could pay for the music, and not look for rationalizations not to

They have to be weighing how many subscribers they’ll lose if a few more (and higher profile artists) pull their catalogs vs. how many they’d lose for infringing of the “free speech” of Rogan by cutting him loose and making his show available to a myriad of other platforms

Unless several people on the level of Taylor Swift pull their music I don't think there's much fear for them.

The entire podcast pivot seems like it's been a bust, though. I saw that Last Podcast on the Left got out of their deal even before this shit, I suspect that being Spotify exclusive hasn't been good for shows' numbers.

Interesting. I do know several people who are into podcasts and audiobooks but don't listen to music much, so paying for Spotify probably wouldn't even occur to them. It's not like there's a shortage of podcasts lol

Unless they want Obama/Springsteen, Brene Brown, Rohan, etc.

*Rogan

Brene Brown said something on Twitter about no new episodes for a while, don't know if that's Rogan related.

They've still got Harry and Meghan though.

Yeah, the Replies to that Brene Brown tweet are full of whiny Rogan fans talking about George Orwell

xxp or you could pay for the music, and not look for rationalizations not to

― False Pretenses Lad (morrisp), Sunday, January 30, 2022 3:35 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

perish the thought

tired of 'tech bros' as pejorative. it's 'ruling class.' gender and sector neutral. let's have some class consciousness ffs.

They've still got Harry and Meghan though.

Two weeks ago, Spotify shut down their in-house production group and laid off 15 staffers. This week, they advertised at least three positions on a “show team” to help Harry and Meghan complete a second episode of their weekly show designed to “elevate underrepresented voices.” (The first episode came out at Xmas 2020, was half an hour long, and featured Elton John and James Corden.)

H&M also directly hired a full-time producer as “head of audio” last July.