 Spotify, shit as it is, is just one of many streaming music providers. There are no switching costs, and you can choose between a ton of providers. That's why Spotify doesn't need to be regulated under the DMA. I swear to god people are allergic to basic facts and reality these days.  18 comments
@tjex You can export playlists from Spotify just fine? Right from the various applications and web player.  Well, sure. But this is only useful if you can handle json or are up for finding the right service to export to an end format that you want. And the only usefulness of this is if you can import your playlists. You have the titles, albums and artists from your playlist, but no way of listening to them (easily). Thats a high switching cost.  @tjex @thomholwerda this is not true. I have exported playlists from Spotify into Qobuz before and while there were a couple of tracks that weren't there, the playlist worked just fine.  @thomholwerda @tjex its very easy and free on Qobuz via Soundiiz. Imports playlists mostly intact.    @thomholwerda yandex was the best, but it's Russian and I cannot use it anymore. Amazon and Google are not better, apple isn't working fine/at all on other platforms, then the question of how much music is available on the platform and if it's available in your region.  @thomholwerda Who in the west is going to use Tencent, Netease or Yandex? Everyone I know uses Spotify. If I was to switch I would lose 1. Shared sessions (multiple ppl controlling player) @thomholwerda And exporting a playlist created by someone else will cut you off from updates. People continually expand and rearrange their playlists. @thomholwerda Do I get a Youtube Music or Apple Music Wrapped? Do I get cute video greetings by my favorite and most listened artists? Music streaming services don't work exactly like a classical social network, but I think there is a considerable network effect. You want to be on the service that all your friends are using.   @thomholwerda the best replacement for Spotify doesn't exist yet.
One of the many aspects to the project I am working on. Replacing Spotify with an organization that pays it's artists.   @Gargron @thomholwerda That surprises me.. I always thought tidal was up there in the numbers.  Surprised to see that Yandex has enough subscribers to show up on a worldwide chart |
Gregory's Server
@thomholwerda
The switching cost is actually quite large as you can't export or import playlists (at least from Spotify).
People spend years building up their playlists for all manner of situations. They become emmotionally and functionally attached to these playlists.