Spotify

Grayditch

Maybe just save your Spotify playlist to the phone when you're at home. That's what I do, and I have unlimited data but it stops breaks in the music in bad 3G areas and saves on battery too.

adox

Currently trialing Beats Music at the moment. Very sleak app and slightly different but enjoyable UI.

Gonzovision

I've only just updated to the latest desktop client to find apps have been removed. What a joke. Any decent music was brilliant for finding new albums. There were loads of great apps on it. All we are left with now is 'Discover'....Disappointing to say the least.

SepTomBer

Spotify is my music companion

Vernonymous

I love using Spotify. One of the best app ever made

Steve King

trudub83 wrote: »

Surely if the artists didn't want us to listen to their music on Spotify they would ask to be taken off it?

I dont think they'd have a say, it would be upto the label.

I tried Spotify for a day or two and then went back to TunedIn and the huge choice of "Listen Back" radio shows every genre offers right now. If you dont like a bit of chat and info between the songs there's always Soundcloud and it's big selection, especially if you like Electronic genres.

That said, I know people ranging from 20s to mid 40s who love their Spotify so it definitely has lots of takers. There has never been a better time to be a music lover, all you need is WiFi or a decent data plan

loyatemu

Gonzovision wrote: »

I've only just updated to the latest desktop client to find apps have been removed. What a joke. Any decent music was brilliant for finding new albums. There were loads of great apps on it. All we are left with now is 'Discover'....Disappointing to say the least.

Any Decent Music have a website with direct Spotify links on each of the albums.

A lot of the other apps seemed abandoned e.g. the Guardian and Rolling Stone apps.

Gonzovision

loyatemu wrote: »

Any Decent Music have a website with direct Spotify links on each of the albums.

A lot of the other apps seemed abandoned e.g. the Guardian and Rolling Stone apps.

I actually never used their website! Will have to start checking it out now. It was just so handy for getting new releases. Just think it's a step backwards overall.

mass_debater

I'm back using Google Play Music after dropping it for Spotify six months ago, the repetitive radio playlists on Spotify got very tiring. Google Play seems to have made a few changes for the better with regards to random playlists, there's now mood, working out, relaxing, brand new etc.

danger_mouse_tm

I had 4 days left on a Spotify premium subscription which I redeemed from my Vodafone cherry points. My friend gave me his cherry points voucher that he wasn't using so I entered that into my account and my premium subscription now shows an expiry date of 8 may. Should if not be added on to the end of my current subscription?

ChrisBarrett7

I love Spotify. As a student it's impossible to download or buy CD's of all the artists I want to listen to. I do however go to as many concerts as possible and I'm about to begin my vinyl record collection, so I'm trying my best to support the real artists out there

Chrome342

Spotify is my new family.. i love using it.

Clem_Fandango

Sony's cavalcade of leaked documents in recent months has been, at best, enlightening to industry trends. But at worst, and what seems to be a partial internet consensus, the leaks have created an irreparable black eye for the media empire.

Alongside some of the company's more silly leaks comes an all important contract document with Spotify, which was singed in 2011. According to The Verge, the 42-page document gives an enlightening sense of how the pay ratio between the artists, streaming service, and labels was established. And contrary to what seemed to be the fault of Spotify, the label (unsurprising to many) seems to be at principle fault for the minuscule artist pay rates.

The two-year deal, written by Sony months before Spotify's U.S. launch, detailed what financial goals Spotify needed to hit, as well as advance payments to Sony, and how steaming rates were tabulated. The entire document can be found online.

Several key points stick out of the leak. Section 4(a), as Verge details, dictates that Spotify had to pay Sony $42.5 million USD in advances (over the course of the two years plus the optional third year), but there is no detailing of what Sony would do with that large sum. Verge notes, "According to a music industry source, labels routinely keep advances for themselves."

What also sticks out is Sony Music's intricately detailed use of the Most Favoured Nation tactic, famously prioritized in trading regarding international economics. The complicated structuring, in laymen terms, dictates that if any rival company strikes a deal with Spotify that is more favorable for that company, Spotify must pay the difference directly to Sony Music.

The Verge explains the benefit:

"That means if another music label is getting paid $1 million by Spotify for each percentage of market share it has, and Sony Music is getting $600,000 per market share percentage, Spotify must pay Sony Music the $400,000 difference — known as the adjusted contract period advance — at the end of each contract year."

Additionally, much of the document highlighted the two companies confounding advertising revenue, which also directly affected the pay rate of artists. Not only did Spotify have a 15 percent "off the top" rate, of which it can keep for itself and not count towards the final revenue, the streaming service had to allot $9 million in ad space exclusively for Sony. Sony, however, could choose to deal those ads however it may have chosen and it acquired the space at a highly discounted rate. As well, a portion additional ad space was completely free for Sony to use to promote artists.

Per the deal, as if it weren't obvious already, Sony Music was making an awful lot of money. Clauses in the final pay rate to the label were especially intricate and grossly favoring Sony. Essentially, Sony was earning 60 percent of Spotify's monthly revenue at the time, plus an additional percentage of pay from Sony-exclusive artists. "So if Spotify earned $100 million in gross revenue," Verge writer Micah Singleton explains, "the labels would would get $60 million. If Sony Music made up 20 percent of the streams, it would take home $12 million."

Going even further into Sony's favor, section 10(a)(1)(ii) of the contract indicates that if Spotify's expected growth did not meet expectations for any given months, the pay-per-stream rate that it owed Sony was subjected to increases. And if the growth went over expectations, then Spotify also had to pay the change in proportion to that revenue. Meaning, if the growth was under, Spotify paid the difference, and if it was over, it paid Sony again.

In the end, it's hard to say that Spotify and other streaming services are a principle culprit in the under-paying of music artists, given that the vast majority of revenue from the service itself heads right into the hands of its major partnering labels. It's an incredibly messy public relations debacle, of which, further enlightens the plight and failures of the music industry.

ifconfig

How easy is it to subscribe to Spotify say for 2 months and then just set a reminder to unsubscribe before the 3rd month kicks in ?
I have been using Deezer for a while and the stream quality is good but I wanted to just try the two side by side again to see which I will ultimately switch to (or remain with) .

I know I can buy 10,20,30Euro Spotify vouchers in the likes of Harvey Norman but wondering if I can just subscribe for a short period of time and make the decision to stay or quit by a particular day in the month, etc.

Rezident

Is it possible to buy someone a year subscription to Spotify in Ireland?

I do not want a gift card, is there some way to just buy someone a year's subscription? I cannot find it anywhere.

iamstop

Just lashed my debut up on Spotify. Feel free to turn it to loud so your neighbours hear what's up! :-)

https://open.spotify.com/album/69JKwCcZGdLqX4Upj3DwP7