this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
679 points (96.7% liked)

Technology

60606 readers
3106 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 254 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

From the article:

"...journalist Liz Pelly has conducted an in-depth investigation, and published her findings in Harper’s—they are part of her forthcoming book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.

...

"Now she writes:

'What I uncovered was an elaborate internal program. Spotify, I discovered, not only has partnerships with a web of production companies, which, as one former employee put it, provide Spotify with “music we benefited from financially,” but also a team of employees working to seed these tracks on playlists across the platform. In doing so, they are effectively working to grow the percentage of total streams of music that is cheaper for the platform.'

In other words, Spotify has gone to war against musicians and record labels."

[–] verstra 22 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Can someone explain why this is bad? It seems like normal behaviour of corporations.

Or has spotify previously committed to being a fair market?

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This is like a soup joint that's trying to see how much they can piss in the broth before customers notice.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is a completely disingenuous comparison.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Better check the TOS doesn't include acceptance of various concentrations of piss..

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago

The normal behavior of corporations IS bad. By definition.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago

IANAL but it seems akin to the antitrust case against Microsoft for bundling their own web browser in with Windows or movie studios also owning theaters and giving preferential treatment to their own films.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

You seem to be saying that something normal and legal cannot be bad.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Just because it's normal doesn't me it isn't bad.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Unfair competition.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I'm just surprised that anyone didn't assume this was happening. If most people are using playlists generated by Spotify, how are they not expecting Spotify to choose songs that are also in their interest? Furthermore, how would this be different from the practices of a radio station? Seems like manufactured outrage to me.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] anzo 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Published in January 2025, seeing the URL, huh.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

The article is an excerpt from the full report, which comes out next month.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

So basically Payola 2.0