Currently I am listening to Two-Tone Army by The Toasters. A band not commercially available in the UK. If I wanted to listen to it offline, I would have to first order it off either an online store such as Amazon or Play.com or put in an order in one of my local record stores in town. No, at the moment I am listening to it on a lovely streaming web-service called Spotify. I'd link to it, but at the rate it's going there's no point. As I write this, I've got a free account which means that I can listen to as many tracks as I like from any number of different artists and I only have to suffer the odd advert which pops up after every four or so songs. Nothing too strenuous there then. But, from today,in about 14 days time, I probably won't be listening to the Toasters, or the Porkers, or any of the artists I've discovered since joining it. Why? Well, I'll tell you.
Spotify have pretty much done the business decision equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot. Today, I received a notice when I opened the program concerning 'Upcoming Changes to Spotify'. Clicking the link I was informed that Spotify would be changing their free/open account policy. Fair enough, I thought, nowt stays the same forever. I was right, sort of. These changes primarily concerned how the accounts would operate. Before I go any further here's a quick description of the differences between the four accounts that exist:
FREE: Unlimited playtime, adverts every so often.
OPEN: Limited to 20 hours a month, adverts every so often.
PREMIUM: Costs around a tenner a month, unlimited playtime, no ads.
UNLIMITED: Costs a bit more a month, unlimited playtime, no ads, other features not sure off the top of my head.
So I have the first one, and I'm happy with it. I can stand the ads for Lucozade, Jessie J and other stuff I am never going to buy, it's worth it for the free music, sort of. Basically, the way Spotify get their revenue is through the paid accounts and the advertisers. So in a way, I am still paying the people behind it. Now, here's what they're proposing to do. Firstly, all new users can enjoy Spotify as it it today for the first six months. This does not affect me. 'Okay, nothing concerning me so far' I thought while reading.
"As of May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1st 2010 will be able to play each track for free up to a total of 5 times. Users who signed up after the beginning of November will see these changes applied 6 months after the time they set up their Spotify account." So, I signed up at some point last year, I'm not sure when although I'm pretty sure it was before November... 5 times? That has to be the stupidest idea ever. By all means limit my playtime per month, but really? 5 plays per song? Does that mean I'll only be able to listen to The Mountie Song by the Arrogant Worms 5 times after May the first? What happens after that? It's barred from my account? It's very hard to buy obscure Canadian Comedy music in my local HMV and I'm not sure I like the idea of paying £10 per month for essentially renting it. It'd be easier for me to buy it online! At least then I don't have to check my bank balance before pressing play. Actually, this reminds of a similar experience with my computer and a Region 1 DVD I own. Popping it in my comp, it happily said "I'll play it, but if you play this one three more times, I'll stick to only play region 1 DVDs and you'll be buggered." In the end, I bought a portable DVD Player for my computer area (nowhere near a tv), and a Multi Region player. Problem solved!
"Additionally, total listening time for free users will be limited to 10 hours per month after the first 6 months. That’s equivalent to around 200 tracks or 20 albums.
" Remember me mentioning that thing about limiting my playtime? This is that. So Spotify, you're taking away my unlimited playtime and giving me ten whole hours? Probably still with adverts? That's an interesting play, but I somehow don't think it'll pan out with the 5 times limit on top of that. Again, it'll probably be easier in the long run to buy a physical copy of the album than simply rent it. But I suspect that's not the outcome Spotify want.
In fact I think this is a 'controlled' attempt to coerce/persuade/trick me into upgrading to a paid account. And according to the feedback on the news page concerning it, it's not working. Seriously, 84 pages of feedback in two days almost 90% are against the idea! Now I can understand some of the reasons why they're doing this. Spotify currently is only available in the UK and Europe, they've been trying to make a move in America, however it seems to have been blocked by most likely the Record Labels. Yes, them greedy rich bastards. Not liking the idea of Spotify allowing people to listen to music for free, they've decided to start pulling their content from it. So, this may be some sort of compromise between the two. More content available for Spotify as long as they up the rent and hound the free users. Probably. But really, there are better ways to change your entire operation without alientating your users. Personally, I wouldn't have done the 5 times thing, I'd be happy with the limited playtime and ads, just as long as the option of playing Riot on Broad St. over and over and over during that time. I'd not do that anyway, but you get the idea.
I'm not happy about this upgrade or suffer ultimatum. I love music and have little time for greed and I have issues with giving out bank details over the 'net, so I'm in something of a predicament. Do I upgrade and enjoy basically the same benefits as I do now? Or do I stay where I am and get into the habit of switching off after an hour or half and play more different songs? Or of course there is the option of simply slogging through Youtube and seeing what I can find on there.
In the end, I don't want to upgrade because I don't think I can justify a tenner a month for something I'm only going to use when I'm on a computer (With my life, it's changes daily). However, I'll probably still stick with what I've got just to see if there is any improvement to content. That said, after May the first I will be awaiting the inevitable email saying Spotify has closed due to lack of interest, business and poor interest figures.
Currently I am listening to Shatner's Bassoon by Lightyear
