For those who didn't RTFA, this applies only to Spotify Radio, and to the "keep playing stuff like this after my playlist ends" auto-generated song selections..
I still think it's shady/shitty, but the scope does seem to be limited for now.
It does not say this will affect Discovery Weekly or Release Radar, although it's a slippery slope to those for sure.
Will there a SuperPremium listener plan that defeats this so I can find good music rather than peddled noise?
You want me to pay for being subjected to undisclosed advertisements? I'm afraid I will have to start pirating again.
My favorite thing about spotify has always been the music discovery, and this completely ruins it.
As an artist, I don't know how to feel about this.
I could be not-completely-against-it if they:
Make this program available only for artists that have less than X Monthly Listeners, Give users the option to disable "boosted tracks" and set a reasonable ratio of organic/boosted songs (less than 5%, for example).
Some music distributors like The Orchard are doing something "similar" from their workstations: you can use the money you've generated from organic streams (and I think you can actually "borrow" the money they expect you to generate during the next quarter) to create paid campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
I recall a time when payola was done under the table and there were reasonable attempts to keep it a secret. Careers were made and ruined, documentaries were filmed, many eyebrows raised.
My, how times have changed now that it is done right out in the open.
Wait, I thought Spotify was a champion of fairness and level playing fields.
Iām confused.
Seems like a very dainty way to say payola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola
I've switched a while back to a competing service. I've welcomed a DJ app support, lyrics. I miss spotify's autogenerated/profiled weekly/daily playlists.
I'll boost music for a cut of the royalties too, AND my name is slightly more reputable than Spotify's
Boosted music? Incredible! Who will pay me for listening promoted shit? Oh, I forgot, It is me who will pay them for listening shit! Bravo!
Because of this and some other issues I'm going to switch back to YTM. Feel free to recommend other platforms too
Hey Spotify, the 50's called: They want their payola back :)
I guess we have come full circle.-
Paying somebody to put a song before the public.-
Very negative view in the article, but as long as they are open about it to the listener it doesn't seem like it has to be a bad thing. It will provide some incentive for artists to pick tracks that will be popular enough to compensate for the reduced per play-profit, if they do this well, it's also a track that listeners are likely to appreciate. Basically the incentives here align, and as long as they don't start removing the existing mechanisms for discovery, there's nothing forcing artists to opt in to this.
Fuck. This. Entirely.
Any advantage afforded to a given artist by engaging in this service will vanish once everyone does -- the end result is Spotify paying artists less while the artists get nothing in return.