

Angry Reaction To Spotify's New Facebook ID Requirement - donohoe
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/angry-reaction-to-spotifys-new-facebook-id-requirement/?src=twr

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bryanh
I actually cancelled my $9.99/mo membership after all this. I still really
like Spotify and Facebook's new timeline. At first, I even really dug the new
Spotify integration. However, I just noticed how much of my internet is tied
back to Facebook with very little _real_ utility gained and that makes me
uneasy.

I feel a little mixed here as I make my living developing a Facebook app and
now I've got Disconnect for Chrome installed and won't be using any web apps
that offer only Facebook Connect. I guess I just don't really support Facebook
touching every corner of the internet.

</putsontinfoilhat>

~~~
tallanvor
I'm hoping they're not stupid enough to require existing subscribers to link
their account with Facebook, but I'm not holding my breath, and I'll cancel
the minute they try and force me to link with Facebook.

Unfortunately it seems that many companies have decided that "social" is the
way to go, and those of us who don't want to share everything with everyone
all the time get left out in the cold.

~~~
matwood
Yeah, I just tested my desktop and mobile app and they still work. If they
force me to log in with facebook I'll be forced to cancel since I do not have
a facebook account.

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kleiba
There are not a lot of things I dislike more than having to create a new
account for every new webservice out there, even just to try it out. But at
the same time, in the age of datamining I feel even more uneasy about cross-
logins. So even if I had a facebook account, which I don't, I would not want
to use if for anything but facebook.

~~~
jstanderfer
How long until we read about a company that's storing significant amounts of
data gleaned from the API's of Facebook/LinkedIn/etc. being hacked?

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Matt_Cutts
I just saw this in the article: "MOG ... will also require new users to log in
with Facebook, said David Hyman, the company’s chief executive."

Does that mean no one will be able to sign up for MOG (another music service)
without providing a Facebook account either? Am I interpreting that correctly?
I looked for a sign-up button on MOG but didn't immediately see any way to
sign up without a Facebook account.

~~~
ltamake
It's a really stupid move for both services, Spotify and MOG. Some users don't
have Facebook accounts for whatever reason (suspension, dislike of Facebook,
no need for it, etc.), and this prevents them from becoming potential
customers of the music services.

~~~
natrius
You have anecdotes. They have data. It's bizarre to see how many people are
willing to call this decision a mistake while my Facebook Ticker is full of
people playing songs on Spotify. The new signups from the increased visibility
probably dwarf the number of people who end their subscriptions in protest.

It's quite possible that this "stupid move" is also a wildly profitable move.

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evandena
Why does "social" have to be pushed down my throat?

~~~
RexRollman
This. Times infinity.

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danmaz74
I really don't understand why Spotify needed to become Facebook ONLY. Give the
possibility to login with facebook (and possibly OpenID etc.) - awesome. Force
me to do so - stupid.

I can only guess that Facebook promised them something in return, and I don't
like this.

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yason
It would be good to be able to share stuff between social media and other
internet services. It's just that it's me who wishes to decide myself what to
share, not somebody else.

Conversely, it would be terrific if I could just use Google+, Diaspora,
Facebook or any other network and be in touch with somebody who's _not_ in
Google+, Diaspora, Facebook or some other network, and share statuses from one
network to other networks where I have friends.

But something like that goes so deeply against the fixation that these
networks need to be rivals that it won't happen soon. Till then, it's quite
sad. I have most people in Facebook but I only log on to Facebook on a need
basis via incognito browser window. I would like to hang out on Google+ but
roughly speaking only my nerd friends are there so this cuts my connections
down to one subgroup. Diaspora would be nice now that their site seems to be
more in working order but nobody I know is there.

Maybe it'll all converge back to irc+screen at some point, having come a full
circle in 20 years or so.

~~~
pestaa
I was born in '90, so the good days with IRC and quality mailing lists had
passed while I was growing up. I wasn't there, yet I somehow still miss it.

~~~
robgough
It's still there... and still quite active. Most "projects" and things have a
channel somewhere, quite a lot on freenode - including our very own hackernews
(irc.freenode.net #startups)

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RexRollman
From Mr. Ek of Spotify: "We’ll try lots of things, and probably screw up from
time to time, he wrote, but we value feedback and will make changes based on
it."

We'll soon see if that is true or not.

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jarin
I actually think it's kind of funny how us nerds dream about this globally-
connected society where you don't even NEED logins and data flies around
effortlessly.

Then when it actually happens, we all flip out.

~~~
RexRollman
I, personally, would have no problem with this requirement if it was a ethical
entity; which Facebook is not.

~~~
jarin
I think once an entity has the ability to do it, people will tend to think
they are unethical, or at least be suspicious. Google and Facebook weren't
considered "potentially evil" 5 years ago.

~~~
AlexandrB
The problem is not in the ability, but in the incentives. If a paid service
offered the same functionality, I would be more inclined to trust them. As it
is, Facebook/Google have every incentive to collect too much information and
use it in a way I wouldn't like.

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statictype
Some Facebook employee slipped (via twitter I think?) that Facebook's working
on some music offering that lets you listen to what your friends are listening
to at that moment. This could possibly be tied in with that.

