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Spotify Free Desktop Users Facing Malware-Filled Ads on Mac and Windows
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Indeed. I don't care about ads being displayed - put up as many images as you feel you need to and I'll decide if it exceeds how much I care about your content - but I'm very selective about who gets to run javascript (or any other executable code) on my machines.
People seeking free music find their computers get infected.
Shades of limewire...
Shades of limewire...
I use the Spotify free desktop application all day, every day at work and often at home. I have no idea what the OP is talking about.
I'm sure a lot of the advertising is from third-party ad agencies and Spotify doesn't ever look at it.
My takeaway from this is very simple: If you use Spotify free, you are risking getting hacked. Stop being cheap and pay for the best - Apple Music.
Spotify has too many gaps in their library for the serious music fan. The Apple exclusives alone make Apple Music the only game in town as far as I'm concerned. I find discovery and recommendations far supreme on Apple Music too, and of course the software is better integrated with all my devices. Spotify feels like a mess.
I disagree. According to Spotify, they have over 40 million paying customers. That's a pretty big market to go after.
Apple's cost would be negligible since they already offer a 3 month trial... and with the AM redesign, Siri and iTunes Match, they have a better product as well IMO. They just need to make the transition easier; not unlike what they've done for Android switchers.
If they had some good marketing people, I think it could work. But judging by all the poorly done AM ads, their top marketing people seem to be working on other projects.
Nice to know that the the guys that used to make Macs have something to do!or they got a new competition sabotage team
But this issue isn't about paying customers. It's about the free tier customers. They aren't paying for service regardless. They're willing to see/hear ads and they would most likely move from service to service if given free trials. That group brings little value to whichever platform they're using.
Multiple reports have stated Spotify's paying customer have grown right along with the growth of Apple Music and AM's grow has not come at the expense of Spotify's customers. If the 3 months free didn't get people to switch another 3 months ain't gonna do much either. Remember, these are people who already see the value of paying for streaming. A lot of them are already iDevice owners and see no value in Match or Siri (the red headed step child of digital assistants - just my opinion, YMMV). If AM had a web app like Spotify or GPM then it would be more appealing imo.
Understood, and I agree about free users and their tendencies, but my comment was in reply to someone who mentioned a switch campaign and I thought that wouldn't be a bad idea.
As for Spotify user growth, I think that has more to do with word of mouth than technology, though a web app certainly wouldn't hurt. I think if AM launched to great fanfare, it would have seriously outpaced Spotify's growth. But because they botched it with complex messaging (the keynote was a disaster!), complex UI and was buggy for some users, they lost that golden opportunity.
Now that those issues are behind them and they have a superior product, I think it may be worthwhile to go after those people who may have been turned off by what they read/heard about AM. A 6 month free trial and one button transfer of playlists would go a long way IMO. Once those users test drive the new AM, I have a hard time believing anyone would consider going back to Spotify... I honestly think they'd find it really painful.
I can agree with most of your quote, except that part about a superior product. That's highly subjective. Two iPhones in my household of 4, none use AM. All of us use Google PM + YT Red and my wife still holds on to her .edu Spotify account (nostalgia?) Both wife and daughter tried AM, neither stayed with it. Could be because we aren't tied to a single ecosystem - see tagline. I think being tied to Apple makes a difference regarding AM.
In terms of what these music services do, I honestly don't think there's a huge difference. When I say AM is the best product, I mean it's the best product (for most people, anyway) on Apple devices by virtue of AM's tight integration with the platform, iTunes Match and especially Siri.
Nothing beats asking Siri to play a song, playlist, artist, top hits of whatever month, year or decade, etc.
Consider the alternative: unlock iPhone, launch app, tap/swipe around, search, etc. before you hear exactly what you want.
If Siri expands to include other media apps, then my opinion may change, but until then, AM is the music app to beat... on Apple devices.
Our opinions differ, but that's okay. Siri doesn't get much use in our household. To be fair neither does OK Google nor Cortana. Clicking on one app is no different than clicking on any other. It's a natural part of using a smartphone. So for us, GPM is the music app to beat.
As long as we're both happy with the services we use, I'd say you and I are okay to continue to be advocates for our service of preference.
The Internet advertising industry has become so incredibly shady and intolerable. And to think websites are asking us to disable ad blockers! How about NO.
Advertisers brought this upon themselves by making it utterly intolerable and a security risk. They must now reap what they sowed.
Advertisers brought this upon themselves by making it utterly intolerable and a security risk. They must now reap what they sowed.
Several news sites report that Spotify issued a statement saying that the rogue ad has been shut down. Apparently it wasn't really malware (i.e. something that infects the computer), but the ad just opened a pop-up/pop-under page with "scareware" in the system default browser.
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I don't think that is accurate. Spotify stated a while ago that the majority of paying subscribers are converted free-tier users (something like 70 or 80%, if I remember correctly). That's probably the primary reason why they are keeping the free tier: It brings them loads of subscribers.
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