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Spotify rolls out video ads for Spotify Mobile and Desktop

Ren

Yep. It's that kind of attitude that really pisses me off. They act so entitled.

 

Yeah I get it, buying CD's used to be a total ripoff (Back when they were $20+ per CD) and pirating is generally a distribution problem... But when people who want free services don't want to sit through the ads that make those services free, then what the hell? That's fucking unethical if you ask me. Don't want to pay? Watch the damn ads. They are 15 or 30 second timeslots. 30 seconds of video in exchange for awesome free content won't kill you.

 

Spotify also needs to differentiate the premium service somehow, and removing ads is the most logical explanation. If the free version had no ads, then hardly anyone would subscribe. Even with the higher bitrate songs unlocked, a lot of people don't care about the quality difference, or have some cheap shitty $10 headphones that can't show the difference anyway.

 

They do offer offline playlists on top of that for premium subscribers, which is what I use. I only pay $5 a month though since I'm a student. I just wish there was better organization with the playlists.

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Yep. It's that kind of attitude that really pisses me off. They act so entitled.

 

Yeah I get it, buying CD's used to be a total ripoff (Back when they were $20+ per CD) and pirating is generally a distribution problem... But when people who want free services don't want to sit through the ads that make those services free, then what the hell? That's fucking unethical if you ask me. Don't want to pay? Watch the damn ads. They are 15 or 30 second timeslots. 30 seconds of video in exchange for awesome free content won't kill you.

 

Spotify also needs to differentiate the premium service somehow, and removing ads is the most logical explanation. If the free version had no ads, then hardly anyone would subscribe. Even with the higher bitrate songs unlocked, a lot of people don't care about the quality difference, or have some cheap shitty $10 headphones that can't show the difference anyway.

 

Although I agree with your idea that ads make sense, and well I won't retype what I said before, they need revenue somehow, I don't fully agree with this idea of the video ads, although in previous posts by others it has been explained why they might need it to compensate for the lower value of banner ads and probably with that sound ads. I don't quite think Spotify is the right platform for video ads since it is a audio service, but that is my opinion.

 

 

Speaking of the whole forced alt+tab thing. Has anyone seen any confirmation that it will do this? I think people are just making up "worst case" scenarios without any proof. As long as the video isn't forced alt+tab, then it won't make any difference to the end user. If you hear the audio of the video ad, it will be just like listening to an audio ad.

 

I can understand the whole bandwidth issue as well though. But if they are smart, they will allow variable quality on the video ad. Take YouTube video ads. They load at whatever quality setting your video is currently at. You can manually drop the quality of the ad too, or force YouTube to default to a lower quality to begin with, which will then play all ads in the lowest available quality.

 

Speaking of the alt+tab thing, I do not know if this has been confirmed or not, I was speculating, and I assume so was the OP, that does not change my view on it if it does happen. If it does not alt tab or halt the play back though I don't fully see the benefit as most people run Spotify in the background, but that might not matter to ad partners. Yes my posts were based fully on the worst case scenarios, without much proof. 

As for the bandwidth thing, youtube video ads do not work well at all, for someone with my bandwidth, since my standard resolution is 360p and these ads always seem to want to go to 480p and don't seem to buffer correctly, which more often then not resulting in the default video playback resolution being set to 144p (that might be a configuration error on my end, but it happens to me across multiple devices)

 

They do offer offline playlists on top of that for premium subscribers, which is what I use. I only pay $5 a month though since I'm a student. I just wish there was better organization with the playlists.

 

Indeed they do, and that for me is the main reason why I am considering it, although 10eu/month is quite steep, since I don't listen to too much music

 

I don't think it'll force itself to be the at the top of all windows for you to watch it. If it does that'll be pretty shitty - I doubt they'll do that though.

 

I think you shouldn't draw conclusions right off the bat until you see it. :)

 

Well as said above, my speculation was based on worst case scenario, I hope that they won't do that.

And you are right I did draw my conclusions a bit too fast this time.

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Although I agree with your idea that ads make sense, and well I won't retype what I said before, they need revenue somehow, I don't fully agree with this idea of the video ads, although in previous posts by others it has been explained why they might need it to compensate for the lower value of banner ads and probably with that sound ads. I don't quite think Spotify is the right platform for video ads since it is a audio service, but that is my opinion.

 

 

 

Speaking of the alt+tab thing, I do not know if this has been confirmed or not, I was speculating, and I assume so was the OP, that does not change my view on it if it does happen. If it does not alt tab or halt the play back though I don't fully see the benefit as most people run Spotify in the background, but that might not matter to ad partners. Yes my posts were based fully on the worst case scenarios, without much proof. 

As for the bandwidth thing, youtube video ads do not work well at all, for someone with my bandwidth, since my standard resolution is 360p and these ads always seem to want to go to 480p and don't seem to buffer correctly, which more often then not resulting in the default video playback resolution being set to 144p (that might be a configuration error on my end, but it happens to me across multiple devices)

 

 

Indeed they do, and that for me is the main reason why I am considering it, although 10eu/month is quite steep, since I don't listen to too much music

 

 

Well as said above, my speculation was based on worst case scenario, I hope that they won't do that.

And you are right I did draw my conclusions a bit too fast this time.

I appreciate the amount of reasoning and thought you've put into your posts. I can see how YouTube ads could pose problems for people with slow connections (150Mbps here so not really a problem... lol). 360p is already horrendous, but it defaulting to 144p? Yuck!

 

10 Euro/month does sound a bit steep, considering 10 euro does not equal $10 USD.

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Aw yeah, "high five" power of money!

+1

 

The power of:

  1. Having a job (or parents giving you an allowance)
  2. Not being a cheapskate

 

 

 

I don't get why people who appreciate the service refuse to pay for it if they can. It's not a lot of money for the amount of music you can access. This and other free services have so many users that go ranting/whining/raging at any turn whenever the service provider attempts to increase revenue.

My take on it is that if the cheap users adapt to it so well that it no longer pushes them to subscribe, you need to step it up. Of course they will increase the level of annoyance in ads.  Also, video ads = more revenue than regular banners.

 

The entire goal is to increase revenue. There's no "they have enough money" bullcrap. A company aims to increase revenue, not maintain.

 

I'd challenge anyone who complains about companies trying to make more money to actually start a company, decide "we will make exactly this amount of money, NO MORE." and actually go through with it. Of course you won't. You can tell already that it's a really stupid idea. Why work your ass off only to shoot yourself in the foot and simply not even try to make more?

Easy logic, right? Where's that logic when complaining about free stuff?

 

 

Like the service but cant afford?

- No problem, just live through some ads but it's still free.

 

Like the service and don't really mind the ads, so not paying.

- Good for you! You're a rare breed.

 

Like the service & don't like ads but won't pay even though you can afford to?

- You have no rights to complain about anything. Period. 

- No ifs, buts or pointing out what you consider to be flaws in their plans or logic. 

 

You are getting a service for free. You have done nothing to deserve it except agreed to a ToS stating that you will listen to any ads they play. Any inconvenience you experience is your own choice by not paying for a service you use. If you consider it absolutely unacceptable, voice yourself by not using the service. If their decision really was way across the line, this is your only option unless you want to pay. If enough people quit; they will take back their changes. If barely anyone quits, well, maybe consider that you were overreacting after all.

 

 

 

 

Consider how much the average person pays for sodas, fast food, junk food and other things that they don't need - every month. Probably waay more than £10/$10. (Note: average person, so if you're living healthy, there's no need to point out that you are because that has no impact on the average persons habits.) 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This rant isn't pointed at any specific person, especially not anyone unfortunate enough to want to pay for their services but literally can't afford (and haven't spent it on other junk they don't need). But if you feel targeted and fit in to the description then by all means: Yes, consider this to be about you.

Potato

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