Okay, so they have a billion songs from every artist ever for free? How do they pay for it?
I've typed and deleted the word "ad revenue" about 20 times because it's just not the case but I'm not sure how else to word it. They make money off of premium subscribers. You can pay to have your music commercial free. "But you said they don't make money off ad revenue!" Yeah, and I mean it... because EVERY add is for SPOTIFY ITSELF. I also feel like the longer I listen, the more it plays commercials for itself. It's basically trying to bully me into paying by breaking up an otherwise beautifully smooth experience with obnoxious self promotion. The worst part from a business standpoint is that when a real add does come on (maybe 1 out of 10 commercials is for something other than Spotify Premium) I've already tuned it out because I'm so used to not listening to the Spotify Premium commercials.
The other thing they love to do is make it so you have to click on a full screen add to close the add and interact with the program. That's just annoying because I NEVER have my music player in the foreground completely. That means I'm able to see the buttons but can't press them because the center of the screen has an add for SPOTIFY PREMIUM that must be clicked before I can click anything else.
QUIT YER BELLYACHIN!
I get it, no such thing as endless free content... but when you compare the long duration experience of free Spotify vs free Pandora or free last.fm you have a very different experience. Sure, they all play commercials, but at least Pandora will play a variety of commercials that are for products other than Pandora's premium service. I tip my hat to thee, Pandora sales department. I hate having to click "I'm still listening" so often, but that's a minor gripe.
I guess I'm just spoiled by Pandora's ad management. They make it such a smooth part of their experience. It may be a personal thing, but I don't mind that they are making money by selling my time to these companies and giving me awesome music in return. It feels like a fair trade. I will listen to this add for some new car and in return you will find me more songs that I will like. The Spotify experience so far has been "we're going to make this unbearable until you give us money just to get you to give us money. We aren't making any money off this commercial, but I bet it ruined the flow of the album you were just listening to... doesn't that suck? Give us money." That feels underhanded. Maybe they are just priming everyone for the day when they have all their add time slots sold, but even if that's the case it sure feels lousy.
I don't share playlists, I don't integrate with facebook and I have no interest in any of the social apps Spotify has to offer. This may be affecting my overall opinion of the service, but I'm only interested in what they do best: on demand music... and as it turns out that's good enough.
That being said, if you don't have Spotify on your computer go download it RIGHT NOW. You may not use it all the time, but when you need Spotify, only Spotify will do. For example, my wife enjoys Katy Perry. I've only heard maybe one of her songs before, so in the interest of getting to know what my wife likes I typed "Katy Perry" into the search bar, it gives me a list of her albums with her top hits on top. I listened to a few songs and moved on. I didn't have to go out and buy a CD. I didn't need to purchase a single off itunes. I just said "you know what? Let me hear what this chick's all about." Double click... listen... nothing to lose.
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