Take down notices

What has happened with the latest update/deletion of tracks is all so depressingly familiar to what happened a month ago when many tracks were removed at the behest of the record labels. Take a look at the old thread here...
http://getsatisfaction.com/spotify/to...

Here is something I wrote in that thread...

Andres - Sorry to sound so down on everything, but all that has happened in the last few days is just so depressing. You and Spotify’s PR Manager (Sophia Bendz) have said over the past few days on the forums and in the presss (and I am not quoting you directly here but paraphrasing)...
- The records companies allowed Spotify to launch without regional restrictions as a temporary measure on the understanding that a solution to this would be implemented later (Sophia Bendz said this in an interview with Computer Sweden yesterday). This means Spotify knew all along that regional restrictions would have to be enforced.
- When the record companies ask you to remove something they often don’t give you any reason. They just ask you to remove something and you must comply. This is, I presume, why you can’t tell us why something has been removed, as you don’t know either.
- You really don’t want us to complain to the record companies in case it affects, in any way, the already fragile relationship that you have with them.

All of this just demonstrates to me two things:
1) The amount of uncontrolled and unregulated power the record companies have over Spotify (and other streaming and on-line music services). They dictate to you what music you can and can’t have and where and when you can use it, and they can also take it away at any time with no justification or reason except that they say so.
2) Spotify has known all along that what is currently happening would eventually happen but they have been less than upfront in disclosing this to their customers.

I really hope that Spotify is a success. I feel you have a great product and your developers have done a great job. However, given all that I said above, I am not so optimistic about the future given the current attitude of the record companies and the amount of uncontrolled and unregulated power they appear to have and their lack of understanding of the on-line world and the digital marketplace.


This is surprisingly similar to your complaint Xenius except Spotify hadn't admitted at that point that the take down process was completely automated giving the record labels even more power than even I thought they had.

One month on and nothing has changed, nothing has got better. The catalogue may have got larger but the record labels can still take away any of it whenever they want for whatever reason they want and without any justification even to paying customers or to Spotify themselves. What other industry in the whole world commands so much power over the product that they sell?

Ok they take the cure album down cause it's on a different label over here it's on polydor but it's still a sub label of universal so it still makes no sense, i have emailed universal today

Some very good and intereseting comments.

This is whats get me puzzled: Why are the label companies interested in this utterly complex restriction of their albums, when they have a golden oppurtunity to enter the digital market with a truly great concept ?

I am not an angel. I have bought a lot of music through time, but have also downloaded some illegaly, i am not justifying this, but there is an interesting thruth:

I havent illegaly downloaded one single song since i became a Premium customer at Spotify. Even though a certain track/album havent been available in Spotify, i have thought "well, i just listen to it when it gets available in Spotify". Havent bothered downloading it illegaly, even though it would take just a few clicks with the mouse.

So appearently Spotify facilitates a "cultural" change when it comes to the distribution of digital media, it facilitates the thought "why be a pirate" which for me, no other concept has done before

And since the label companies have yelled crywolf about piracy for so long , why in earth would they miss a golden opputunity like this when it finally comes to them ? Insted of grabbing it, and let it grow, so new opportunities, new subscription plans, new ways of making money becomes available over time ?

As i see it, they have a very dedicated team at their "service" working 24 hours to satisfy both the users and labels. Why not make use of this great advantage presented to them, instead of slowly killing it, and the spirit of Spotify, with all kind of stupid restrictions (and no, i am not a rocket scientist, but restricting a certain song, to a certain part of the world is in my oppinion UTTERLY stupid in the year of 2009..) ?

They are just comprimising the trustworthiness of Spotify trough their stupid maze of "digital rights".

I believe, that all this will have one outcome at the end: People will eventually get back to achiev "their" music the easy way: through piracy.

Why ? Because piracy is global. Piracy dont care about if you live in the Uk or Sweden. They offer equal rights to all the users.

Sad to realize, that the pirates (myself?) have understood what the label companies still miss out on: It's time to think globally, think "out of the box".

So lets get this straight:

Spotify only offers a platform for record companies to give some music for Spotify users to listen.

And we, the premium subscribers, have no guarantees that our favourite albums will stay on Spotify during the current subscription perioid?

Any of the tracks/albums can be taken down without any warning at any time?

Currently I feel cheated and disappointed because of a big part of the music that was on Spotify when I subscribed has now gone because of the record companies.

And the fact that Spotify still has no ability to play your own tracks I constantly have to switch between two programs. Seems like a small issue, but still..

It's a shame that I subscribed for a year, If it wasn't for that I'd already canceled my subscription and moved back to torrents.

I hope some of the record company business geniuses is reading this cause I can tell you that Spotify is the by far best digital distribution channel for music, beating iTunes and even some specialized music torrent sites by far.

ps. I'm not blaiming Spotify crew, I know they have nothing to gain from any restrictions.

I can't really complain because i'm using it for free, i wonder which bands were on pinnacle will look into that.

Anyway saying that I can understand why a premium user would be upset if they were paying a certain amount a month if stuff is not avaliable for them with the exeception of totally obscure bands.

One word digithed- Money

I think it would be great if the labels could all work together then that might mean the end of restrictions

@jamssi
+1
internet should have NO restrictions, if the record labels keep this up its the end of them as we know it

the reason people pirate is
1. no restrictions
2. easy
3. quality

Spotify is a nice example done right, as its even easier than to pirate*
well just launch spotify and play you favorite music

I don't think it's at all fair to blame the people at Spotify. Did you listen to the trial last week - the interrogation of John Kennedy? These people pull tricks like this all the time. They were screwing with Steve Jobs for years despite Apple being the first time they actually made money off digital distribution. No they never give up and they never learn. Spotify: that's the good guys. There is a BIG difference.

Spotify isn't just the 'cheap' angle. It's also access. Where else are you going to find all these titles? A physical record store? Yeah right. And at iTunes? How much do you get to listen to before you have to buy? Remember when record stores let you listen to WHOLE albums before buying? And who wants to 'own' music that way anymore? Methinks some people don't get it. The torrent freaks spend so much time downloading they have no time left to enjoy anything.