
Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Content Officer - f3f3_
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/business/media/spotify-dawn-ostroff.html
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nxc18
If anyone from Spotify is reading this: I love you, but please please please
stop autoplaying videos in my playlists.

1) it makes playback stop when I'm driving. It's hard to get it to start
again. If the screen is off, please just play the song in place of the video.

2) the UI goes away when a video is playing so there's no way to see the
playlist without jumping through hoops.

3) it wastes data. My family regularly nears the monthly limit, so this really
matters to me.

~~~
bkillmer
Vote here: [https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-
Mu...](https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Music-Option-
to-Disable-Videos-in-Curated/idi-p/1620225)

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traek
Smart move for Spotify, foreboding news for Genius.

This is also a cautionary lesson for founders about raising at inflated
valuations--Genius's series B raise at close to a $1B post-money val will make
it more difficult for them to exit with an acquisition.

(In fairness, they completed that round with the intent of "annotating the
internet", not becoming the music content platform they've since pivoted to.)

~~~
mattj1
Didn't it start as a music annotation platform?

~~~
traek
Yes, but the intention was to expand from there to allow community knowledge
curation on _anything_.

See Ben Horowitz's note: [https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-
genius-2/](https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/)

Marc Andreessen's note:
[https://genius.com/1102682](https://genius.com/1102682)

~~~
dsnuh
Yes, I remember they tried to expand, but it didn't catch on.

I think it may be because at it's heart Genius feels to me like a
skinned/specialized Wikipedia, and Wikipedia already has other information
covered. Lyrics are a good fit, because Genius has a format that suits itself
well to annotating lyrics, and it is a reliable source for quality lyric
content. So many lyrics sites other than Genius are horrible to look at and
usually are riddled with ads and popups.

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wgerard
I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). The
platform works for it, and it feels like a natural transition to go from
listening to music to listening to a podcast without leaving the platform.

The article even notes it's a higher margin business.

~~~
CharlesW
> _I 'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?)._

Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way.

Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio
and video on the open web.

Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best
podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their
proprietary platform in order to increase the value of that platform.

The important bit is that the Spotify show isn't a podcast — no podcast app
can play it. Spotify owns the listener relationship. They share stats with
creators at their pleasure, if at all. It's a closed thing.

Apologies for what will seems like pedantry to some, but podcasting is the
only open audio/video medium we've got.

~~~
3pt14159
If Spotify wants to win on podcast there is an easier way to do it: License
podcast episodes with a two-week exclusive window. The ultra loyal fans and
Twitterati will care but the podcast wont lose mass appeal.

~~~
simongr3dal
They already do this (with a one-week exclusive) on the very good music/lyric
analysis podcast Dissect
([https://dissectpodcast.com](https://dissectpodcast.com))

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qdigital
Incredibly surprised it has taken this long.

Given the amount of listening data they have I was sure they'd have taken the
Netflix route with regards to producing or orchestrating original content
(i.e. this producer with these artists + brand partnerships tailored to
audience = $$). I'm sure I am simplifying and this is much more complex than
that, especially considering the legal maze that is music, but still. Their
only innovation seems to have been in bespoke playlist generation.

