Spotify Premium User Slams App Over Audiobook Feature
(www.dailydot.com)
from sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to technology@beehaw.org on 09 Jun 07:18
https://lazysoci.al/post/14465269
from sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to technology@beehaw.org on 09 Jun 07:18
https://lazysoci.al/post/14465269
Oh Spotify, when will you stop trying to push people to the high seas đ´ââ ď¸
threaded - newest
slams
Destroys even!
So, is this the type of SLAM youâd typically see in a moshpit? Or are we talking about wrestling slams?
I think itâs more like a door slam without a door.
Iâm voting poetry
âa single user saysâŚâ
The daily dot is a fucking joke.
Regardless, 15 hours audio is low AF
Audiobooks are expensive to produce and have extra licensing associated with them. Even Amazon can only give out 1 credit for $15 a month. A single books costs anywhere between $10-$60 bucks. Its just unreasonable to expect spotify to be able to afford that when they already barely pay musicians.
Barely paying musicians is a choice. In fact even the whole audiobook setup is a choice. Give me the epub and TTS and Iâd be happy as Larry.
Iâm not defending them, just saying that itâs foolish for an enduser to expect anything different when they already donât pay musicians and that is the primary content on their platform.
I can pretty much guarantee the average user would complain way more about the quality of simple TTS than they would the time limit. It would likely be a much bigger PR issue for them. AI generated TTS would probably be good enough for most but that is just another cost.
Regardless, the licensing involved with book publishers wouldnât allow them to just produce their own audiobooks like that. So it is not really as simple as âjust a choiceâ.
The audiobooks help them pay even less for music:
I should have used the words âwant toâ instead of âbe able toâ. It is a garbage company I am definitely not defending their business practices.
They could certainly âclearly pass the costâ of this on to the user by not offering Audiobooks to users who didnât pay for the â+ # of Audiobooksâ tier of Spotify Premium; instead of this horrible enshittified crap where it cuts you off midsentence like a greedy telecomm provider would. Or perhaps their limitation should be on how many titles you can listen to concurrently in a certain time period. (So if you open X books; thatâs it; you have to shelve one or wait it out)
It certainly means that Spotify did a bad job at negotiating their rights to these audiobooks as well. That matters too; because that makes the product worse; and that should never have been allowed to happen. If they couldnât have offered it nicely, they couldâve just not offered it at all or added it to a higher service tier so that the cost is diverted better.
For sure. Ive got 100s titles in my Audible catalog and most of them are over that threshold. It is s stupid system. I donât use podcasts or audiobooks on spotify, I think they should stick to music lol
15 hours for what period of time? The article mentions theyâd refill in two daysâŚ
Audiobooks are expensive to produce.
Spotify is awful when it comes to content creators, complaining as an end user is crazy though.
If you read the article, the main point was that Spotify doesnât inform about the limits clearly. Not the pricing.
Even now Spotify site says: âSpotify Premium: Listen without limitsâ. Clearly there is a limit, but the limits are only mentioned after the first subscription button if you scroll far enough.
If I could afford a lawyer I would use for lying
Audio books are no longer expensive to produce. I bet my ass most except for the biggest titles will be AI generated in very short time. Whether people like it or not.
Well unlike your ass, I appreciate the nuance of a good performance. But i know what you mean.
GPU time, while cheaper than a voice actor, is still a bit spendy though. And you then you also have the various copyright/licensing âissuesâ associated with AI content, companies may be a bit hesitant to go all in on producing books like that. Makes more sense for someone like Amazon/Audible and less sense for someone like spotify.
Besides, most audio books exist already so that really only applies to newer titles.
My ass probably could appreciate real performance if I was into audiobooks overall, I just like books as books. Iâm not exactly happy about all content being replaced with AI slop. However I donât think spotify cares, if something is cheaper they will go for it, just like other corpos.
Oh well I think they will be losing as well, people donât even really need the audio book providers anymore, since they could just do AI ebooks themselves if they just have the text ebook.
Agreed on pretty much all counts but I love Audiobooks just as much as âanalogâ books lol
âthe 15 hours customers get free with premium equates to two audiobooksâ Is the average audiobook really that short!
For eragon it would takes months to finish.
The hobbit is 10 hours.
Think most of the books Iâve listened to have been over that length, but I donât use Spotify. Self hosting for the win. No time limits in prologue
They probably have a bunch of 1 hour âbooksâ that mess with the average as shorter is cheaper to help pad out their numbers.
Looking at my personal library, the median length audiobook is The Last Wish at a tad over 10 hours. So itâd be equal to 1.5 books going by that, not the worst marketing exaggeration Iâve ever seen.
You can opt out of audiobooks and save the extra cost they added the other month. moneysavingexpert.com/âŚ/spotify-saving-basic-planâŚ
Not in the US unfortunately, which is bullshit
Dang :/ I was looking for the option
oooh, ty
Thanks! I didnât know about this. I never use audiobooks. Just changed my family plan. ÂŁ2 is ÂŁ2!
Headline contains -
Opinion of random member of the public
The word âslamsâ
Iâm not reading it because Iâve probably wiped better journalism off my arse this morning
Fedi Punter in Media Lingo Rant Slam: Reaction
Iâm fuckin raging. HEREâS WHY
Ten pictures of Feddit users reacting to clickbait headlines that will make you say âno, these are all trains. No, Iâm complaining as such, I like trains, I just⌠I thought⌠No, the headline said something about⌠reactions, yeah, and ins- actually, hang on, how did you get in here?â
Poster slams poop off his butthole, sparks controversy!
What a crock of shit!
Thereâs no need of âslamâ â or âeye,â âmull,â âSolons,â usw â in an era where youâre not writing a 1-42-4.
(1 column, 42pt, four lines)
Spotify is worse than piracy. Itâs a robber baron.
Iâm about 2/3 of the way through backing up my âLikedâ songs to MP3 files, at which point Iâm ending my sub.
Itâs a bummer because I actually really like Spotifyâs algorithm and it suggests great music for my tastes, but, I can have that for free without feeding their stupid insatiable greed.
Pro tip: get audiobooks from your libraryâŚalong with paper books, ebooks, games, movies, etc.
The real storyâs in the comments. This helped my single-mother-friend stay sane in the early/poorest years. Everyone needs to know how their library has changed since they last borrowed a book in 1982. Thanks for posting this â I forgot too!
I hate the word âslamsâ