Continuing with Spotify?

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.

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

[Note: I buy everything I like though I stream things to see if I like them. But this isn't about me, it's about a generation or two younger than me who simply consume music differently and no sanctimonious sentiments are gonna put that genie back in the bottle.)

Sure, all those young kids dl’ing MP3s on Slsk (who’s the boomer now, lol)

Use it all you want, just don’t fool yourself (I was responding to a comment that presented piracy as somehow the most “ethical” choice)

It’s not the consumer’s fault that artists don’t get paid well. It’s not the consumer’s fault that Spotify charges so little. It’s not the consumer’s fault that major labels didn’t negotiate better terms with streamers, nor that they don’t offer better terms to their artists.

Is that honestly the way you see yourself as a consumer? Helpless?

I don't associate "Helpless" with Spotify anymore.

I’m not helpless but when the discussion turns to “ethics” I get tired of the implication that the state of the industry is the fault of the fans.

What is so depressing to see is how many people, when suggesting alternatives to Spotify, are pointing to TIDAL, Apple Music, YouTube or even Soulseek and how few are pointing to Bandcamp, much less telling people just to go buy the music directly from the artists.

Have you ever successfully convinced a streaming diehard to start buying music again? I have not despite years of trying. Also, I use Bandcamp and Tidal for different things. Bandcamp rules but it's false to suggest it can replace the function of a streaming service. For example, none of the dancehall or afropop I listen to is going to show up there

Surprising from Rogan - https://www.engadget.com/joe-rogan-balance-things-out-spotify-disinformation-measures-085039569.html

people actually look at me cross-eyed when I tell them I buy music on Bandcamp. they'll still trot out the old canard "they make most of thier money on tour anyway!"

xp
maybe that $100m was stock options?

jon otm

also some good pr fluff in that article, morrisp. i don't believe a word of it.

I finally canceled my spotify account. Semi-arbitrarily went with Tidal, so far this is pretty much the same as spotify so it all feels pretty good. Managed to transfer all my playlists by paying a one month subscription to soundiiz. Some stuff missing from Tidal, but not too much.

Xpost Now he'll book Robert Malone AND Dr Fauci for rebuttal. Fauci will get 30 seconds and air horns will blare every 5 seconds

people actually look at me cross-eyed when I tell them I buy music on Bandcamp. they'll still trot out the old canard "they make most of thier money on tour anyway!"

― he's very big in the region of my butthole (Neanderthal), Monday, January 31, 2022 10:17 AM (one minute ago)

I have had people mock me when I tell them I "still" buy music, both digital files and physical. It's a deeply felt, unquestioned, and broadly shared cultural attitude ime

xxp - oh, I don’t know what he’ll actually follow thru with. Just surprised he’s publicly eating sh1t. Spotify may have pressured him for PR reasons

The two serious suggestions to use Soulseek I saw really annoyed me, like encourage people to go from giving peanuts to artists to making sure they get nothing? Come on.

Have you ever successfully convinced a streaming diehard to start buying music again?

Sort of? I've turned a few friends on to Bandcamp, so I consider that a minor win.

and yeah I should buy more stuff from bandcamp. It's something I do but not enough.

xxxp to myself

that's honestly good to hear jon! and yeah I agree about soulseek

"buy music when you see bands live" was my motto but then everyone stopped playing live for the past two years so then i started paying for livestreams but that didn't last very long

from the article: He also disputed the episodes being labeled "misinformation," saying that many of their opinions are shared by mainstream listeners.

Uhh, thats not what "misinformation" means my guy.

I know, right? Haha

There was misinformation in the video:

"I just realized "Chuck E.'s in Love" is Rickie Lee Jones not Joni Mitchell."

Theres simply no denying that an antivax podcast host who cant remember who Joni Mitchell is makes a great spokesperson for the music streaming service Spotify.

"’I'm not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them," he said.

Making fun of people for spying for music must be a generational thing, my age group still pays for music or listens to the radio.

Paying (-spying)

Something I was thinking of last night: people goof on Rogan for being the NewRadio guy or the host of the bug-eating show, but I feel I dont often hear people bring up what imo is a key moment on his celebrity journey: the Carlos Mencia feud, where he literally made a viral video that incited an online mob to successfully cancel the career of an A-list comedian. It was obviously over joke-stealing & not related to politics or sex crimes or whatever. But still, its kind of weird that this person who now is the standard-bearer of the free speech/anti-cancel/anti-online-mob movement was himself responsible for what I feel like is one of the earliest examples I can remember of the modern template of a celeb's career capsizing overnight due to a targeted online backlash.

yeah, it's almost like he's a fucking puppet.

It’s not so surprising as stand-up comedians primarily care about joke theft and not wearing shorts on stage.

His defense of "I'm just having conversations" rings a bit hollow when he's choosing the people with who to converse--who just so happen to hold views that get you a lot of clicks

i use free spotify and i am p sure i will never pay for music again even if that option disappeared. i obv don't think people who pay for music are stupid tho.

many xps

I think streaming and sales is a little more complicated than just streaming=lost sales, it's replaced record stores sure, but it's also replaced radio. if i turn on an oldies station and hear a bunch of my favorite songs from being a little kid, I didn't own ANY of them, I owned 2 records that my parent bought me for a long time, but I didn't buy music at all, just radio and MTV

also, there's an amount of my listening that's just curiosity, like if some thread on ILM is getting a lot of traffic or, say, Taylor Swift has a new album out and everyone is freaking out about it. I will listen to it once or (maybe) twice, but in an earlier era I certainly wouldn't have bought it, I just wouldn't have heard it

There is definitely the category of albums that I'll check out and like enough to listen to 5-10 times, but don't love enough to buy (and/or they're not sold in physical format anyway)

(and also wouldn't have bought or probably even heard pre-streaming)

I haven't read this piece about local libraries setting up free streaming services yet, but it might be interesting: https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/library-music-liz-pelly.

And yeah it would be a huge loss to not be able to listen to a random track once to satisfy your curiosity (though if everything in the world was on Bandcamp, you could still do that). The 5-10 listens thing is weird, because I invariably forget about those albums and I'm not sure how I feel about that

Are you cool with forks making Spotify playlists out of every rolling thread without permission?

Bandcamp gives you a "hey if you like it so much, consider buying it" message after 3 or so plays

The radio/MTV replacement thing seems so key to Spotify's success - capturing low-engagement listeners who just want to thoughtlessly put on playlists like "Cooking Music" or "Road Trip Jams" where previously they would have just thoughtlessly switched on the radio.

I would guess that the $120/year that I pay for Spotify premium is fairly comparable to the amount I used to pay for new CDs at a record store. At one point, I might have also spent about that much (if not more) in used CDs, but that's not money that an artist would have seen. So, although streaming generally pays less to artists than CDs did, I don't feel like I was really contributing all that much to artists' revenue streams in the CD era. And now I'm listening to vastly more music (or at least a much wider range of music) than I once did.