Spotify U.S. Launch Imminent, Raises $100m Round

[Killyp]

Please do. Enlighten all of us. Seriously.

I really can't do that through an online forum. Sit down in front of a decent pair of speakers driven with decent electronics in a good room and I'd be surprised if any decent musician/music-lover couldn't tell the difference between 160kbps OGG vorbis and PCM audio.

Agreed. But that genie is out of the lamp now. And now, the facts remain that CDs are sold to promote tours (and to increase exposure for sync licensing, but that's a whole other kettle of fish). There's a reason artists are giving away CDs for free, and it's certainly not out of the goodness of their heart.

I completely agree with you there. It doesn't make me like Spotify any more, I don't like what it's done to the industry and as an engineer, it has made my life a whole lot more difficult.

Most of the state schools are in this position, but they've been that way for a long time. There have always been orders of magnitude more music teaching jobs than music performance jobs. Many of the conservatories don't even have music education as a major -- they're still focused on performance (often to the detriment of students -- many of the conservatories still frown upon instrument doubling, which is absolutely essential for a modern musician)

True, but for the VERY few that really do go on to become some of the top performers in the world, it's worthwhile. I know a few people who have gone on to play in the BBC NOW, (and still don't earn decent money) and I'd say it's vitally important that we have establishments which are able to train world class performers. This is a whole (very interesting) different conversation though, one which can go on for quite some time...

It's tangential to the argument, but I'm just using it as proof that she couldn't have been wronged as much as those initial reports said she was.

I don't believe those initial reports are all that wrong, it's just become a HECK of a lot more difficult to earn money from recorded music, and Spotify is really not helping.

Neither do I believe that the extra income from exposure through Spotify is all that significant (YouTube is still the main source in that respect), but that's just a personal hunch. I haven't seen any figures or statistics to back that up so I could be quite wrong.

Look. We're both passionate about music. We'd probably get along quite well in the real world. Friendly argument at the pub kind of thing. I apologize for maybe setting the wrong tone off the bat. We obviously have different opinions on things, but I (honestly) don't mean any of it personally. My most spirited and chair-throwing arguments are with my best friends

Likewise, I think it's important to have good balanced conversations about something like Spotify. So far I feel this thread has been pretty unbalanced in the 'pro-Spotify' camp, and I think it's important people are aware of the issues (whether they are showing at the coal face or not).

There are strong arguments both ways for Spotify, and I think it's fairly clear which side of the fence we both sit on!

 

[ruvil]

Well, if this is true then I'm going to stay with Grooveshark. I've been trying it out and they don't have weird ads poping up or disrupting my music selection playback.

I agree. My premium account at spotify will run out in a couple of days and instead of renewing it i guess i'll stick to my pirated music for a while

 

[AaronEdwards]

...

Your arguments rely a bit too much on personal views, personal anecdotes, and old false reporting.

Now, Spotify might not be what you want. Much as iTunes might not be for a lot of people either. But we are all still free to chose what we want, Apple, or anyone else, isn't forcing us to consume music a certain way. You can buy through iTunes instead or you can buy physical cds and rip them yourself.

I believe that Spotify/Rdio/MOG is an improvement over iTunes much as buying digital songs was an improvement over buying physical cds. Obviously they all have their drawbacks.

But one thing is sure, just because I think one thing, I'm not going to assume that that's the best way for everybody else, nor am I going to use personal anecdotes or discredited reporting to argue my point.

 

[Mac32]

This discussion is a bit counter-productive, but it all comes down to how expensive or hi-end your stereo system is. If you have a standard, run-of-the-mill stereo system, you may or may not hear a difference betwenn 160kbit OGG and PCM audio. At 320kbit you would need a fairly expensive stereo to hear a difference. My stereo is in the upper midrange, and I've tried to hear a difference between 320kbit and CD-quality - and I cannot. ..and I'm musician and would like to think I am fairly picky about sound quality. The "ear fatigue" argument is interesting, some times when I play my iTunes lossless music I think "Wow, this sounds great, surely better than Spotify"...but there's a lot of placebo involved here too. That's why everybody is talking about blind tests, and not how a certain bitrate make you feel or whatever..

 

[Anghammarad]

I really can't do that through an online forum. Sit down in front of a decent pair of speakers driven with decent electronics in a good room and I'd be surprised if any decent musician/music-lover couldn't tell the difference between 160kbps OGG vorbis and PCM audio.

Sit down in front of an average to poor pair of speakers or a computer speaker system which is what 99% of the people are using and then tell me that there's a clearly audible difference between 320 kbit OGG and a CD and I will tell you you are imagining things.

 

[drohr]

What has this "rumor" to do with Mac? This isn't MediaRumors or AudioRumors. Its MacRumors. Spotify isn't a Mac-Only app. It doesn't even have an iPad version. Apple has nothing to do with the company. So why it on the front page?

Can't understand why this story is still getting free advertisement all over. There are other music services out there.

 

[LoganT]

What has this "rumor" to do with Mac? This isn't MediaRumors or AudioRumors. Its MacRumors. Spotify isn't a Mac-Only app. It doesn't even have an iPad version. Apple has nothing to do with the company. So why it on the front page?

Can't understand why this story is still getting free advertisement all over. There are other music services out there.

It competes with iTunes, which is made by Apple.

 

[drohr]

Dell competes with Apple, HP competes with Apple. Microsoft competes with Apple. Netflix competes with Apple.

Every digital company competes with Apple now days. I want to hear MacRumors, not rumors from their competitors.

 

[AAPLaday]

Dell competes with Apple, HP competes with Apple. Microsoft competes with Apple. Netflix competes with Apple.

Every digital company competes with Apple now days. I want to hear MacRumors, not rumors from their competitors.

Spotify as an app is available for both the mac and the iOS app store. If you don't want to read the article then you don't have to.

 

[macsmurf]

I completely agree with you there. It doesn't make me like Spotify any more, I don't like what it's done to the industry and as an engineer, it has made my life a whole lot more difficult.

Spotify hasn't done anything to the industry. The industry did it to themselves by refusing to acknowledge that a digital market existed and that consumers were moving towards it. Seriously, it wasn't really much of a secret but I guess the record companies were thinking short term. They ignored the inevitable for about a decade before Apple came along and bought the rights cheaply and the rest sort of played out as expected.

It's not really a coincidence that the biggest music store in the world is owned by a computer company.

The music industry is finally maturing in this field. The movie industry is still a tween and book publishers are a three year old, and they are doing the same mistakes made twice already.

The only industry actually behaving sensibly is the gaming industry which has been around since the '80. If the rest of the content industry had any brains they would have taken a look at their play book.

But they didn't and here we are.

 

[umbilical]

I have it for some time... and yeah is great. BUT!!!!! Im from old school, I like NOOOOOOO LOSSYYYYY MUSIC! I still prefer CDs! and rip to my mac...

but yeah services like spotify is the future of music... No downloads, no medias (cds etc...)

by the way VINYL still is the best! I prefer over cds... etc...

Im an audiophile

 

[Daveoc64]

You know, MOG streams at 320 Kbps on the iPhone. It's stupid that Spotify doesn't so the same.

Technically Spotify shouldn't even offer 160kbps streaming on the iPhone - it's against the App Store rules to use that much data.

I have no idea what MOG does, but if it is on the App Store it's violating the App Store rules and should be pulled by Apple.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I hope so.

 

[GulGnu]

Still no ipad app...and the iphone app sucks cheese balls. After all this time why is the software still so crappy......?

Spotify is my go-to music solution and has been so for some time now. Exactly what about the iOS app "sucks cheese balls". I find that it works very well.

Also, Spotify isn´t just a "streaming service", it also stores music on your device (iOS, Android), so it is fully useable with iPod Touches, and doesn´t hurt your data plan on the go.

Overall, a great service.

/End of puff piece