Spotify - anyone heard of it?

Someone needs to write a history of the particular style of chatty, "ironically brawny self aware narrator" or whatever the fuck it is the Ad-Vance Auto Parts people are rocking. I think of it in a lineage going back to the equally annoying "real american hero" Budweiser commercials but somewhere along the line I feel like it became 90% of all radio ads.

Oh and then after they've written the history they can use it as a reference text to track down and kill everyone involved. AD VANCE! AUTO PARTS!

advance auto parts has NOTHING on maybelline
that is why i changed my gender on spotify!

pay up you stingy fuckers!

advance auto parts has NOTHING on maybelline
that is why i changed my gender on spotify!

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Friday, July 12, 2013 3:05 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha this is something I hadn't considered even though it makes perfect sense

oh that's a cheap shot, commercials by gender.

I would say the roots of the brawny narrator extend to Tommy Lee Jones as Red Dog, James Garner for Kodak and somehow, even though he ain't brawny, Tom Bodette for Motel 6.

bring back john maus

we never knew how good we had it in summer 2011

Spotify recommendations are kind of winning me over, ranging from the obvious such as

You listend to Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman. Check out John Cale.

to the actually useful

You listened to Wire. Want to see a gig near you?

to the obvious cherry-pickable bizarre:

Since you listened to Os Mutantes you might like this new release by Anita O'Day.

You listened to Jimmie Rodgers . Here's an album you might like.
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/80715603/The+Best+Of+Johnny+Mercer.jpg

If it had mentioned Chemirocha I would have gotten scared.

They should have enough data to do recommendations properly, just feel it's more of a UI issue - if they presented them better or controlled the plague of idiotic "here's the new album from Serge Gainsbourg" recs I might actually enjoy exploring them.

this stuff is just short of inane at best, genuinely annoying at worst

I've found it kind of useful. Discovered Capital Cities, which I have enjoyed.

In principle a recommender could be great - I want to hear new stuff!

yeah. so hard to do it right though.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8993-the-cloud/

"Galaxie 500's 'Tugboat' was played 7,800 times on Pandora in the first quarter of 2012, for which its three songwriters were paid a collective total of 21 cents, or seven cents each."

"Spotify pays better: For the 5,960 times "Tugboat" was played there, Galaxie 500's songwriters went collectively into triple digits: $1.05 (35 cents each)."

I think this speaks for itself. Spotify should be used as a way to discover music, not support it.

That's exactly why you should go to the gigs they recommend.

im curious how many downloads on iTunes or whatever (or even CD sales) they'd need to get to the same number?

thought this might be revived to talk about Radiohead pulling their music from spotify.

"You listened to Parliament this week. Like to try Leadbelly?"

radiohead didnt. Just thom's other stuff (maybe radiohead are getting a better rate but thom isnt letting on)

xxp Radiohead's stuff is still up, at least here in the UK, though Yorke's solo material has been pulled. Godrich and Yorke made some good points along with the often heard "fuck you, pay me" attitude you hear from wealthy middle aged rockers when discussing music and the web.

oh ok, i saw the tweets but then i saw a story that said all of radiohead's stuff was pulled. guess either i misread the story or they misinterpreted the tweets.

I guess Thom Yorke is no longer happy for people to pay what they want for his music

i love spotify but i cannot begrudge ANY musician taking their music off the service and i'm surprised more don't remove their catalog, given the "terms"

I don't know. I still think the half penny per stream payment is somewhere in the ballpark? A million album sales would translate to a hundred million streams assuming a ten song album and ten plays per album on average. A hundred million streams would equal a half million dollars in royalties at the half penny rate, however that's split up.

So, basically a label is taking in 50 cents per album now through Spotify without doing any manufacturing or distribution.

I'd probably pay 3 or even 5 times as much as I do now for Spotify, but companies like this risk having a netflix problem when they try to raise their rates. The other option is to increase the number of subscribers, which I think they can, but even at ten times as many subscribers (assuming proportional increases in plays) most musicians are making less than they used to off the same number of fans.

otoh maybe galaxie 500's fanbase has just like really, really dwindled at this point

"most musicians are making less than they used to off the same number of fans"

If the compensation from places like Spotify isn't the problem, though - and I'm not sure it is - then this has more to do with the fact that people don't only listen to what they buy in physical format, but can listen to anything they want at any time.

i love spotify but i cannot begrudge ANY musician taking their music off the service and i'm surprised more don't remove their catalog, given the "terms"

― adrian "stanky" legg (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, July 15, 2013 9:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. if artists (or the companies they gave their rights to) offer to let me hear their wares at my leisure for pennies I'll take it because OMG I love getting to hear tons of music for cheap. But it's a shitty deal and any artist who doesn't have to probably shouldn't offer it.

why is yorke's stuff still on youtube?

Thom Yoink

Thube Youke.

Since you listened to Steely Dan, you might like this new release by Robert Johnson.

did they completely do away with the "What's New" front page that lists new releases and stuff to emphasize this spotty "Discover" recommendations thing? kinda hate that.

If you like David Bowie, we recommend Ray Charles.

Since you listened to *Steely Dan*, you might like this new release by *Robert Johnson*.

it keeps recommending things i've already listened to on spotify. I PAY SEVEN DOLLARS A MONTH OR WHATEVER FOR THIS

It's confirming how good your taste is! That's worth $7/mo, right?

or maybe it's mocking my taste?!

No, that's the rest of the internet's job.

(for everybody, not trying to single you out here)

haha, yeah nah i know

I got some right now that sound like a bitchy record store clerk into giving humbling history lessons

You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try Styx?

You listened to REM. Check out Chris Isaak.

If you like Soundgarden, we recommend Rush.

You listened to Neil Young and Pulp. Here's an album you might like. *large image of Jefferson Airplane's "Long John Silver"

You listened to the Pretenders. Here's a song you might like. *insanely large image of Neil Diamond's Moods album, track "Song Sung Blue"*

You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try George Thorogood & The Destroyers?

I GET IT SPOTIFY, YOU THINK CHEAP TRICK SUCKS.

You listened to Jason Isbell. You might like this album: Jason Isbell- Southeastern

You mean the same Jason Isbell album I listened to? Thanks Spotify!

And the ones that sound like an intervention:

You've been listening to a lot of "Sentients" by Fuck Buttons lately.

Since you listened to Boris, try this new release by David Lynch

You listened to Bat For Lashes. Here's an album you might like: Abandoned Luncheonette, Daryl Hall & John Oates

they're not wrong, mind you, but...

Also, I just scrolled down and the very next thing is:

You listened to Daryl Hall. You might like this song: The Supremes, "The Boy From Ipanema - Live At The Copa/1965"

At least they seemed to have fixed the weird playlists resetting to an older set and then restoring issue.