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Spotify Ads - "Ring and tell us what you think!" - over and over and over again
Four things.
1. Having ads on the free version of Spotify is fair enough. There isn't much variety in the ads at the moment, I expect that'll change as time goes on so that's not a problem. But one thing that is over the top is the number of ads for Spotify services. Ones that stick out in my mind are label search and day pass. But the most annoying one of the lot is the phone number to ring to leave comments about the service. It's repeated over and over and over again, often we have ad breaks consisting of 1 commercial ad and then 2 Spotify ads. Cut down on the Spotify ads, we don't need it, we are using Spotify already, just provide a link to Spotify news, services, account services, etc, all in the main program. Don't keep spamming us with the same things over and over and over again "buy a 24 hour day pass", "tell us what you think about Spotify", etc, etc. Give us a break! (and don't fill it with Spotify ads). We are intelligent, you know, we can use links in the Spotify program if you provide them. We don't need to be constantly bombarded with audio ads about a service we've already signed up for!
2. Why use a phone line for people to leave comments? It's the year 2009 and Spotify is providing a digital streaming service for the world! Yet you're asking us to use the phone and leave messages on an answering machine? These days, we all use forums, not phone lines. I can never remember the phone number anyway, and I certainly don't want to pay to tell you what I think of the service.
3. The radio service is pretty rubbish. What's with all the big pictures that we have to click on? It's very limited and basic, the kind of thing you'd expect to see on Sky Interactive. Give us more power, detailed lists and interaction.
4. The price for the monthly subs is too expensive at £9.99 a month. It should be closer to £4.99 a month. There should also be family packs where you can run the service simultaneously on multiple computers as long as those computers share the same IP address. I would pay for a subscription myself but I'd want to run it on two computers here in the house, at the same time. I'm certainly not paying twice and I feel it's a waste of money to have it on only one PC at a time. The whole point of Spotify (and what it's relying on for success) is to draw people away from pirated music and get them used to using legit services. I doubt that many people will want to pay £9.99 a month to use the service on one computer at a time in the house.
That's it really. I have been listening to Spotify a lot since I first installed it even though I have my own archive of 40,000+ songs on my hard drive. I just prefer Spotify's search function and the navigation, as well as the size of the program itself (it's really small). I've blocked all my outgoing ports though because Spotify ruins my broadband bandwidth otherwise. I can understand why it uses P2P (since it's a free global network) but there's no way I'd use Spotify if I had to stream music to and from my computer via P2P.
Sadly, I'm going off Spotify anyway, not because of the network but because of the constant ads for Spotifys own services. I'm fed up with hearing recordings of phone calls telling me how good Spotify is, followed by an annoying man asking me to ring his answering machine and do the same. What do we have the internet for? Doh!
1. Having ads on the free version of Spotify is fair enough. There isn't much variety in the ads at the moment, I expect that'll change as time goes on so that's not a problem. But one thing that is over the top is the number of ads for Spotify services. Ones that stick out in my mind are label search and day pass. But the most annoying one of the lot is the phone number to ring to leave comments about the service. It's repeated over and over and over again, often we have ad breaks consisting of 1 commercial ad and then 2 Spotify ads. Cut down on the Spotify ads, we don't need it, we are using Spotify already, just provide a link to Spotify news, services, account services, etc, all in the main program. Don't keep spamming us with the same things over and over and over again "buy a 24 hour day pass", "tell us what you think about Spotify", etc, etc. Give us a break! (and don't fill it with Spotify ads). We are intelligent, you know, we can use links in the Spotify program if you provide them. We don't need to be constantly bombarded with audio ads about a service we've already signed up for!
2. Why use a phone line for people to leave comments? It's the year 2009 and Spotify is providing a digital streaming service for the world! Yet you're asking us to use the phone and leave messages on an answering machine? These days, we all use forums, not phone lines. I can never remember the phone number anyway, and I certainly don't want to pay to tell you what I think of the service.
3. The radio service is pretty rubbish. What's with all the big pictures that we have to click on? It's very limited and basic, the kind of thing you'd expect to see on Sky Interactive. Give us more power, detailed lists and interaction.
4. The price for the monthly subs is too expensive at £9.99 a month. It should be closer to £4.99 a month. There should also be family packs where you can run the service simultaneously on multiple computers as long as those computers share the same IP address. I would pay for a subscription myself but I'd want to run it on two computers here in the house, at the same time. I'm certainly not paying twice and I feel it's a waste of money to have it on only one PC at a time. The whole point of Spotify (and what it's relying on for success) is to draw people away from pirated music and get them used to using legit services. I doubt that many people will want to pay £9.99 a month to use the service on one computer at a time in the house.
That's it really. I have been listening to Spotify a lot since I first installed it even though I have my own archive of 40,000+ songs on my hard drive. I just prefer Spotify's search function and the navigation, as well as the size of the program itself (it's really small). I've blocked all my outgoing ports though because Spotify ruins my broadband bandwidth otherwise. I can understand why it uses P2P (since it's a free global network) but there's no way I'd use Spotify if I had to stream music to and from my computer via P2P.
Sadly, I'm going off Spotify anyway, not because of the network but because of the constant ads for Spotifys own services. I'm fed up with hearing recordings of phone calls telling me how good Spotify is, followed by an annoying man asking me to ring his answering machine and do the same. What do we have the internet for? Doh!
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Inappropriate?1. Don't like the ads, buy premium!
2. Ah, don't be so grumpy.
3. Yes, it is and that's why most people don't use it.
4.a) Family pricing is a good idea.
4.b) Whether £9.99 is too much or not is up to discussion. Now you can get HQ audio and soon there will be Spotify for the mobile. Perhaps you think it's more value for your money then. From my perspective, the current price is cheap considering the quality, speed and overall ease of the program.
4.c) Thanks to P2P Spotify is the fastest streaming service there is. You should get a better broadband service.
4.d) So you are going back to piracy because of some ads? Well, it's your choice. I guess you are part of the crowd wanting everything for free. £9.99 isn't really that much compared to other things we pay for in life...
I’m happy
1 person says
this solves the problem
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Still I think all feedback on ads are very important for Spotify. If enough people just leave because of their own ads, they will have to rethink the ad strategy. -
Inappropriate?1. Don't like the ads, buy premium!
It's not the normal ads that I don't like. I expect that on a free service I am going to receive ads from other companies. They don't annoy me because it's part of the package. It's the repetitive ads for Spotifys own services which I don't like. I don't mind listening to an advert for Boots sun-tan lotion because Boots are paying Spotify to provide a service for us. But Spotify constantly advertising their own services via a program that I'm already using is stupid. Constantly listening to "I love Spotify..." over and over again won't win them any paying subscribers, it'll just annoy free users enough to prompt them to go back to alternatives without trying the subscription model.
Adverts appear on TV all the time, they're expected and it's the norm, we're used to it and it helps to pay for the service. But I can't imagine many people keeping the channel on if they hear "Sky One is great, we love it, call this number to tell us what you thinik" over and over again.
2. Ah, don't be so grumpy.
I suggested that in 2009, people use forums on the internet to communicate, as we are now. They don't use phone lines to leave messages on answerphones. There's nothing grumpy about that unless you really have no valid comment to make so you resort to abuse.
3. Yes, it is and that's why most people don't use it.
Can't really comment on that, I agree. But if people don't use it, replace it with something that will be used, or delete it. I would prefer to see a menu of categories (as the radio stations are now but in a list, not big clunky buttons), and when you click the category, all the songs appear in a list that belong to that category, so that we cam just pick and choose what we want or listen to random songs.
The other day, I wanted to listen to some random country music. I don't know anything about country so I don't really know the artists. I was surprised that Spotify provided no easy way to do that. I would have thought that simple category buttons in the main program itself (not the radio) would have been a popular feature.
4.a) Family pricing is a good idea.
4.b) Whether £9.99 is too much or not is up to discussion. Now you can get HQ audio and soon there will be Spotify for the mobile. Perhaps you think it's more value for your money then. From my perspective, the current price is cheap considering the quality, speed and overall ease of the program.
For £9.99, we should be able to have Spotify running on any PC in the house as long as it has the same IP address. £9.99 per computer, in a house which might contain 3 or 4 computers for parents and kids, etc, is too much. Personally, I think it should be £4.99 a month considering it's only music and not video, but if it's to stay as £9.99 then it should be for any computer in the house, don't ask us to pay 2 or 3 times).
4.c) Thanks to P2P Spotify is the fastest streaming service there is. You should get a better broadband service.
P2P steals your upload bandwidth because it turns every computer into a server. Changing broadband provider would make absolutely no difference, P2P would still work the same way. Most P2P programs allow you to control the bandwidth used on the uploads, because using up your upload bandwidth cripples your internet connection, so it makes game latency and web browsing slower. Spotify allows no such control sadly. It claims to be intelligent enough to know when you need the bandwidth for other things. But just do a 'netstat' after you've been running it for half an hour on P2P and you'll see why your internet connection has slowed so much and your game latency has shot up.
As I said, I've got around P2P by simply blocking all outgoing ports on my router, thereby forcing Spotify to use HTTP instead of P2P. It runs fine that way,so the P2P issue doesn't bother me. I'll rephrase my suggestion though. P2P should remain for free users, as it's perfectly reasonable that free users should be using a free network. But paying subscribers should be able to stream directly from Spotify.
4.d) So you are going back to piracy because of some ads? Well, it's your choice. I guess you are part of the crowd wanting everything for free. £9.99 isn't really that much compared to other things we pay for in life...
Who said anything about piracy? All my songs are ripped from the original CDs which I have in the loft, which I bought all over again when vinyl was replaced with CD. I think I've paid enough for music in my lifetime, I used to spend all my money on it.
But that was way back in the 80s and 90s, things aren't like that anymore. Music has much more competition now from movies and video games, and people don't take music so seriously these days. The music industry have been dragging its feet for so long that most of the world has got bored waiting for them to deliver on services and switched to piracy long ago. But instead of catching up, the music industry sues the pirates, so more crop up and in the meantime we still don't have any offerings from the music industry so we switch to alternative pirate sources, only for the whole process to be repeated.
Eventually, at long last, the music industry seems to have woken up and realised it's 2009 and is now starting to look at ways of competing with pirate services instead of suing them. At last! But they have their work cut out if they want to convince all the people that switched to piracy that the music industry isn't such a bad group of people after all. Because, thanks to the music industry ignoring the digital age for so long, there's a huge market of people out there who are used to getting everything for nothing. And they're going to take some convincing, so glorifying Spotify over and over again when it's hardly even taken off yet isn't a good start.3 Comments Add a comment
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Fair enough!
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#1
I totally agree with you. Ads are here, it's part of the game. But sometimes it just looks like it's ads for the sake of ads (regarding Spotify ads). Just while writing this message, I got 4 ads in a row telling me how great spotify is (label search, sharing, catalog, premium)... Come on! I get it to have the ads regarding subscribing to premium subscription but sharing and label search could be easily presented and highlighted in the client (there's almost no mention to it right now...). Regarding the catalog size, well this is the same if I'm free or premium, so...
just look at this spreadsheet of what I listened yesterday...
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?ke...
It's getting ridiculous. When people are bored of the audio ads, I'm not sure the rate of people going premium over leaving Spotify at all is that important...
Regarding ads income, alternatively, sometimes there isn't any ad banner in the client. Maybe you could have one always visible (make it stay at the same place though..)
#4. Family price/package is interesting. Although it would need to be thought through... Being identified with your IP implies some problem when you move, when you travel, etc... -
I run spotify on FreeBSD using Wine. This gives me the ability to not only block connections based on IP address or application, but also instead set bandwidth limits. - however, I don't bother to do so. - and offer the full 850Kbps upload (adsl2) - most UK users will be on adsl+ with a max 448Kbps upload.
But you are right, the ability should be in the client, so that windows users can do so if they choose.
HOWEVER, this needs to be done fairly - the more bandwidth you share, the less adverts. Of, if spotify don't like this idea, think of it the other way around: the less bandwidth someone offers, the MORE adverts they get!
After all, if more people stopped their upload ability, the service would really deteriorate, so an incentive is justified -
Inappropriate?im romeo. this is funny
Spotify hates the fact that ads have to be given out on the free version but without the adss spotify would make no money for the service so you would have to listen to music from other sites that play very bad.
Heres a lil tip (Click Play, ENJOY FREE MUSIC)
Now thats the only tip i can think off
I’m happy
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He's not complaining about ads from other companies, but he doesn't like the constant ads which tell how great a product we're already using is. I don't see why we need to hear people with annoying voices telling us why they like Spotify and using cringeworthy phrases like "De bomb". Especially when there's a cycle of about three people telling us over and over again how great Spotify is. Surely those slots could be sold for money?
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Inappropriate?Today I have had Spotify on for 3 hours and must have heard over 20 of Spotifys own ads and no other companies.
If Spotify is only playing its own ads then surely companies will stop paying them to have their ads!?
I’m Concerned
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Inappropriate?If your the only one playing the music. does it really matter what a 30 ad is going to do to 6million+ tracks? I mean look on the bright side :)
Spotify + Free + 6million Songs + Full albums + safe way to listen + can buy one without ads. + looks good + Fast + easy to use + nice sounding music + A team that always helps + other perfect features = THE BEST MUSIC SYSTEM ON THE INTERNET
bad points
theres ads on the "Free version"
:) now see where spotify is coming from
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?RoMeO: The problem isn't that there are ads on the free version. Read the original post again. It's that _some_ of the sptoify ads are repeated way too frequently that they become annoying.
Some users have no intetion of signing up to premium, perhaps they can't justify the cost at this time, already paying for other services or just can't afford £10p/m. Not everyone listens to spotify 24/7, if you're a light user just listening now and then, then the free version makes more sense at this time.
Those users will listen to the adverts knowing they're the reason the service is free in the first place, however if the ads are too frequent or very repeatative (i.e having heard the same 2 spotify ads 8+ times in a row made me switch spotify off; this has happened several times now) they'll have one of two choices:-
1) Upgrade to premium
2) Stop using spotify
Some may choose option 1, but not everyone will, and those that don't are now lost ears that no longer generate any revenue through ads.
Yet if the frequency was kept low (it's increased more and more these part weeks/months) and the repetative spotify ads were limited to 1 spotify ad per day or even 6 hours, those ears would at least still be listening to the ads and making spotify some money, even if might not ad up to what they'd get from a premium sub.
Aside from that, in the future those same free users may be in a different position financially, or spend more time listening to spotify in which case they may actually upgrade to premium. But if spotify keep forcing premium ads down their throats, they may have already left and thus never get around to upgrading.
Free users accept that it's an ad supported service, there's no getting away from it, you either put up with the ads or go premium or leave. Sptofy need to get the balance right to keep the most people on premium and free and minimise the number that leave. That balance for me was spotify a few months ago, which is why I log on less often now and tend to shut the app the moment I hear the 2nd spotify ad.
I'm not a huge music listener so paying to listen to music outside of my cd collection isn't really going to happen. Either spotify will get the ad balance right again or I'll go back to my local music collection and just spend the £10-20 per year buying the few new tracks or discounted albumns I fancy listening to. £120 p/y and not owning any of it is too much for me. Perhaps if it was £120 p/y for everyone in the house to use premium we'd be able to split the cost and it'd be worth it though.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?I understand
"Perhaps if it was £120 p/y for everyone in the house to use premium we'd be able to split the cost and it'd be worth it though. "
But theres a reason why the spotify team can't do this.
the main reason is if thay make it like that there would be (Codes)
going round the internet that have been leaked
so you would be paying for somebody elses music time.
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As i know of. Spotify has no plans on removing ads or putting less on
But in fact you did agree to the ads when you first signed up
its like saying
i sold a bike for 130
but told him i want the kickstart back everytime hes not using it
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?RoMeO: There are many ways to implement a family pass if Spotify should desire to do so, as the system is server based Spotify can prevent others getting a free ride.
I do not think technical restrictions are why spotify do not do this, the reason is cost. They'd rather we pay £40 per month for 4 accounts than £9.99 for a family plan account. I don't place a high enough value on music to make that worth doing. Maybe others do and maybe they make up for the number of customers spotify might snag on a family plan, I don't know what their customer base is like nor how many premium subscribers they have.
As i know of. Spotify has no plans on removing ads or putting less on
No one is asking for ads to be removed. If you want that, then you pay for the premium service, that's not what is been debated here.
Spotify are probably playing with the ad frequency and likely have done so since the start of the service and will continue to do so in the future, they're looking for a balanced point between maximising the number of ads played and thus revenue generated from it and not losing listeners in the process
What we're discussing here is the frequency and repetative nature of spotifies OWN ads, not adverts from third parties which are pretty balanced. At some point they'll realise they're playing their own ads way too often and risking losing listeners.
But in fact you did agree to the ads when you first signed up
its like saying
i sold a bike for 130
but told him i want the kickstart back everytime hes not using it
yes we agreed to listen to ads, again that is not what we are debating. Since the service began the ad frequency has increased, again that isn't too big an issue, spotify have to make money after all and you can avoid all ads by going premium. However, that is not what people are having a problem with. Please re-read the posts in this thread. It's the repetativeness of spotifies OWN ads that are causing concerns. -
Inappropriate?Ok hicks
But ive not come here to fight about ads, i come here to help people and so far thats what i have done.
I understand that spotify "OWN" ads are making "you" feel like spotify has to do something about it.
But to be fair when you agree to the terms you also agree that spotify can put its on ads on there to.
you have to understand that theres nothing anybody can do to help you here.
your getting out of control for something you agreed to in the first place.
this is not a forum! this is for bugs/ideas/ and to ask things help etc..
with that said. I would like to end this convo and forget it ever happend
But first i will say this to try and help you one more time
(As i know of Spotify has NO plans to remove "Any ads" thay was put on there for a reason and theres only a few people that do not like it out of 250.000+
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I was only trying to help you to understand.
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?"But to be fair when you agree to the terms you also agree that spotify can put its on ads on there to.
you have to understand that theres nothing anybody can do to help you here."
I think this debate is pointless... Yes the free version comes with ads. We knew that from the start. That's not what's being discussed here. Spotify needs to make money, they're not charity...
As far as I know, Spotify is still in beta, so this means things are getting adjusted thanks to the feedback from the users. At least that's what I understand of the concept "beta", being in the software business myself...
Furthermore I think the whole point of this forum is to give feedback. Whether it's a bug or just a problem in the experience using Spotify.
Beyond that, it's up to the team to decide to act, to fix, to tweak... or not.
I won't blame Spotify if they don't react to my particular "complaints" but at least I will have shared it and I will make an educated decision to use or not spotify in the future.
As long as remarks are constructive, they're worth it... (IMHO)
I’m feeling like i'm doing extra hours, just not for the right company and not paid. What a rip ! :)
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All the remarks you and others here have make are constructive and we take them seriously. We might not comment on them all, in particular when they are around pricing and advertising, we do take them into account. Thanks for sharing and keep it coming. :)
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This reply was removed on 07/16/09.
see the change log -
You idiot
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To jamie: You must be receiving the straight version of this advert... but I don't know where I said in my profile that I wasn't
Cheers btw :D -
Inappropriate?I don't receive any adverts, so I can't comment on how camp he sounds, but if the sound of a gay person scares you, then seek help!2 Comments Add a comment
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It isn't that gay people scare me, its that he sounds camp and creepy. I am actively trying to seek help but nobody will accept my case! :P
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Why don't you call him up then, he may help!
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Inappropriate?Hey, did a Google Search on "spotify annoying ads" and came to this thread!
I agree with the original post, Spotify offers a ad-supported service, so other companies advertising on spotify is fine, as they get money from them to finance the services!
What really gets me are the self promotion messages that play constantly, especially the stupid ones with the answer phone messages!!
I can see a couple of reasons for those messages, and their frequency, and its not about trying to make users aware of more spotify features:
1 - Spotify obviously is still what they call in business school "pre-revenue", ie they are not making any serious kind of money yet! They don't seem to have many advertising clients, and the ones they have seem to be mainly government ads and specific music ads. As such they seem to not have a lot of genuine advertising. The economic downturn restricting advertising budgets doesn't help there either obviously.
2- Given the lack of genuine advertising to play, Spotify play a lot of their own ads. Hey they could just make their users happy and leave them alone to listen to their music, but then nobody would want to pay for premium! which brings me to point 3...
3- I believe the Spotify self promotion ads (especially the voice mail ones), are deliberately annoying, with stupid texts, loud and obnoxious voices and so on .... they want to drive users to pay up!
