Why Spotify Failed

Understanding the broken business of Spotify. Spotify's business is failing. They are increasing their prices, firing their employees and still can't make a profit. The music streaming business model as we know it doesn't work. AI Music is starting to get pretty good. Music artists are getting ripped off, music labels are fighting back and we the users are getting a continued worse experience. So what now?

[@RaisedMedia]

What do you think? Is Spotify (and other music streaming services) a step in the right direction or do these trade offs make it not as worthwhile? The business model is clearly unsustainable. What solutions do you suggest to fix the problems created by streaming services?

[@catherin77]

cut off all those extra layers within the music industry that leave the artist with the tiny portion of royalties

[@pickitupgolf276]

Spotify are never getting a cent from me honestly

[@BatistaInvests]

Yeah but who even are you?

[@Liz-in8lu]

@@BatistaInvestsrude

[@markanderson7236]

​@@BatistaInvestsAlright, but why are you taking offense to that comment?

[@mkemz]

I buy CDs because I cannot stand Spotify. They keep adding things and bullshit but then they remove things from the free plan. Also, not having Hi-Fi (lossless) or dolby Atmos quality makes it worse with the years and experience they have, I love listening to great quality music. Another thing that I'm mad at is literally the free plan on phone, you cannot do ANYTHING. I'd love it if they do like Spotify on computer. It has ads, you cannot download songs but at least you can CHOOSE the music you want. Also they keep updating the app with new features only x regions can use. and I can keep listing my complains.

[@RaisedMedia]

It really does seem like every Spotify update they somehow make it worse not better.

[@incurableromantic4006]

Algorithms are ruining the world, no doubt about that. But I wonder if another issue is that the whole music scene is just over-saturated: there's so *many* people now trying to make a living out of this and unlike the old days, they're not being filtered through highly picky record labels. People just have so much choice now its overwhelming.

[@RaisedMedia]

That’s definitely part of what is causing these issues. Thanks for contributing to the conversation!

[@ClutchChem]

Please keep making videos, your production quality is fantastic

[@RaisedMedia]

Please keep coming back to watch! Really appreciate it.

[@ClutchChem]

🫡​@@RaisedMedia

[@SolidDuke77]

The first domino to fall was the birth of napster and all other free downloading softwares in the late 90's early 2000's, then you had dumb reality tv shows like america's got talent and american idol to promote amateurs instead of true artists therefore oversaturating the market with cheap formulaic garbage, and pro tools making music production accessible to everybody, and later free streaming, and now we're entering the final lethal phase of AI generated music mixed with a population of indifferent dumbed down consumers who don't mind spending hundreds of dollars to go watch "artists" lip syncing to laptop backing tracks.

[@microwavedmetal]

People will go back to physical forms of music if these companies don’t chill.

[@sefarba]

This is one of the best easy-to-understand explanations of why Spotify is ruining music, doesn’t have a future AND isn’t profitable for people who don’t know a thing about music and tech. Just missed a few mentions: Bandcamp, Indie labels/stores, they need our support.

[@BenjaminLennox]

Another incredible video! Keep them coming, I can tell you're passionate about creating high quality content.

[@RaisedMedia]

Thank you!!

[@Jon_kesh]

Loving the video so far but how did you get the 9$ ticket price adjusted to today’s money at the start? Quick inflation tool told me it would be closer to $39 No roasting just curious

[@RaisedMedia]

Well that’s my mistake lol. I meant 39.90 not $9.90. The point still stands but technically it’s around a 2600% price increase not 10k. Good catch :)

[@CheetahNotHacker]

Liked the video, commenting because you deserve to be recommended more.

[@RaisedMedia]

You are the best!!

[@Dragonfury3000]

It's about culture in my opinion. Look at all the other mediums in the entertainment industry that all share the same problem but there's great original works inside the cluster of generic crap.

[@RaisedMedia]

I agree. Original works are probably better than ever right now but Spotify ironically doesn’t let those tracks get fed to enough listers as their entire business model (and algorithm) favours major artists. It’s a tricky problem to solve. Popular artists are popular because well, they are popular…but many small artists, despite having equally good music, can’t beat the feedback loop Spotify has (arguably) unintentionally created.

[@Dragonfury3000]

​​​@@RaisedMediathere's too many artists and songs that sound exacly the same. Music is literally being treated like those horror movies that always include the creepy little girl or action movies that's always about a guy coming out from retirement that kills everyone.

[@losttofu]

@@RaisedMedia I mean i don't think you can escape the favoritism, bigger artists will always get pushed more either through radio or friend recommendations so i wouldn't blame the algorithms that much here. Also your mentioned connection with the artists, i don't believe it suffers majorly in a way that people don't want to connect, just that now people might have higher standards for their favorite artists because there's so many to choose from. I know it took me a couple of years on spotify to discover my favorite band and i've supported them through buying merch. Speaking of merch, i think the shift of how artists now get paid is only natural with the growing costs of living. I still have bought a tee from a band with a 100k monthly but i don't feel like spending that much on other artists because of my other needs. If there were no streaming services more regular people, in my personal opinion, wouldn't spend much on music because they have other things they'd rather spend their money on. So the way artists now primarily get payed shifted from cd's cassettes and vinyls to concerts and merch, which in a way is fineee. Sure it does suck now that seeing your favorite artist is more difficult and expensive but that's the price you're paying for more easily accessible music. Which all doesn't mean i don't believe artists should be payed more, i'm just saying that this was probably how the things were going to evolve given the circumstances anyway. Last point i'd like to address is originality. I think if you want your music to be more original just.. listen to pop or rap less ? the genres are so huge, they're bound to have a million copy cats. Even metal (which together with rock are my primary genres, but i do listen to whatever sounds good) can suffer from this issue at times with few bands choosing to go more generic routes however it's a lot less prevalent and songs getting shorter isn't something i noticed in said genre, Tesseract's newest album has an 11min song that i absolutely love and always listen start to finish. Anyway that concludes this wall of text, feel free to disagree with any of my points i just told it how i see it from my point of view. Also quality video, just maybe a tad bit too long, cheers!

[@RaisedMedia]

Thanks for contributing your opinions! I think the issue is that Spotify is without a doubt an unsustainable business model. Between Major labels and the US government both forcing renegotiations of streaming pay, Spotify is in a tough spot. They either need to charge a heck of a lot more to pass on higher expenses or figure out another solution. It seems they are pursuing advertising and promotion tools as their revenue driver but these are resulting in some negative impacts on the industry and bias on the platform. Discovery mode and their other promotions tools are becoming legitimately a form of Payola. It’s really hard for small artists to make enough money to live on. Even if they have dedicated fans such as yourself, the main way these artists make money is through touring (and merch sales from that) but often these artists struggle to fill venues and the competition for venues has never been higher. Competition and access to more quality music is a good thing but it’s unlikely that this current arrangement between artists, streaming services and their customers will remain.

[@losttofu]

@@RaisedMedia true that, the prices of movie streaming services have been sky rocketing I'm surprised Spotify is still relatively inexpensive, at least here.

[@catherin77]

To add, lots of us having known FB model when you are a product, would actually pay subscription to Spotify to avoid these ads. It's always a smart consumer choice that lots decide not to take. On them

[@deadeyeshot]

Thats why i download the songs i like, an hour ago i found my password to get back into my account and half an hour later i feel like deleting it off my phone.

[@alumcreator7522]

I guess I am in the music minority. I listen to whole albums all the time. I also listen to what I want to, not what Spotify recommends

[@catherin77]

I

[@RubinFortune]

Bro, I always listen to several artists now. As for amercan music, it's Score, NEFFEX, Cam Wales, Josh A, STIM. As for J-POP, it's Fripside, Sakamoto Maaya, Shiena Nishizawa, and etc.

[@RaisedMedia]

Neat!

[@RubinFortune]

@@RaisedMedia NEFFEX's fan base is one of the most dedicated I have ever seen. They even have their own Discord Server. So, it's not like dedication to artists is gone at all

[@RaisedMedia]

Of course in the era of Spotify there are still dedicated fans to niche artists. The point is that in general, streaming services encourage constantly discovering new artists over developing deeper relationships. It’s a general trend but that doesn’t mean dedicated fans such as yourself don’t exist. Spotify has also helped many find these niche artists and become dedicated fans. The future of Spotify based on their priorities seems to encourage this less in favour of churning through as many artists as possible.

[@bipinbabu1814]

@@RaisedMedia I feel like Apple Music does a lot of things to connect with the Artists. Interviews and Radios, kinda making us attached to an Album rather than recommending the same songs over and over again like Spotify does these days.

[@crimsonnyt]

Such an indepth video which got unnoticed by the masses🤧

[@RaisedMedia]

Hey well I’m glad at least you saw it!

[@BreatheThePressure]

Wow, what an insane underrated channel! Keep doing your great work bud!

[@RaisedMedia]

Thank you so much!

[@Shofi.]

Imagine paying for to listen music rather listen it on KZbin with ads what a waste of money don’t have Spotify if you are not a multimillionaire 😅

[@kirigherkins]

Why yes, I've hated Spotify ever since I woke up one day and found some of my FAVOURITE ALBUMS were no longer available. Thanks, modernity!

[@RaisedMedia]

Haha yep. That’s a major downside of the streaming model. You own nothing and anything can be taken away at a moments notice

[@Cameri760]

What are your thoughts on Tidal?

[@RaisedMedia]

It has potential! From a sound quality perspective it’s better. They also pay the artists more on a per stream basis than other streaming platforms. Perhaps that’s due to them being smaller but still. As for its other features I’d say Tidal doesn’t really know what it wants to be. If it originally differentiated itself as being the place for Hi-fi/master quality music, I’m not sure that’s enough of a selling point outside of a niche group of audiophiles. Their playlists are similar to Spotifys but not nearly as good in variety nor is their algorithm as sophisticated (but perhaps that’s both a blessing and a curse). I think Tidal could have really benefited from attracting users fed up with algorithms suggesting music and shift focus towards really getting to know an artist. They haven’t really done that though. They are at least on the right direction with the tidal rising program supporting small artists and Tidal X offering exclusive access to artists shows, meet and greets etc.

[@Cameri760]

​@@RaisedMedia I resonate with what you have to say, I think Tidal has a lot of potential. They need to figure out a plan and stick to it, otherwise they'll never be able to take market share from the behemoth that is Spotify. The software experience is really what people focus on the most, and if they can get a handle on that, they may have a fighting chance. From an ethical standpoint, they are better than the competition, though it may just be simply due to being a loss-leader? Many companies make pro-consumer choices when they're still developing and relying on VC funds. Anyways thanks a lot for your response, I appreciate it greatly!

[@RaisedMedia]

@@Cameri760 yes I agree that likely their moral superiority really is just a loss leader for them lol. I can’t believe a streaming company hasn’t come along and tried to do something different instead of emulate Spotify. Ditch the algorithmic suggesting and instead have an interactive platform that encourages artist discovery through albums or some other mechanism. I’d be really into learning about what the song meant, what the story behind it is, its influence etc. how I image if genius came out with a streaming platform

[@aanuiwueze48]

You're aliiive😮‍💨😮‍💨

[@RaisedMedia]

Thank you for coming back!

[@theflavourist1985]

Right now, spotify already gets drowned by music, made with udio ai and uploaded with distrokid and others. So its easier than ever for absolutely everyone to flood this platforms with garbage so that little artists get drowned even more even though its written in Udio's TOS that the output is for none profitable uses only. On the other side, Spotify recently got a Shitstorm due to a post the ceo's did beginning with a sentence like "today, where it costs almost nothing to produce music..." that tells a lot about him, who propably never bought an instrument or never booked into a Studio for recording and mastering.

[@pickitupgolf276]

Who is that mong at 7:37?

[@RaisedMedia]

Jack Harlow

[@pickitupgolf276]

@@RaisedMedia never heard of them, thankfully.

[@RaisedMedia]

Spotify's own research determined that algorithmically ranking songs by relevance to the user is very effective for satisfying short-term user needs (more songs are streamed), HOWEVER, this resulted in a REDUCED diversity of music listened. Users' music tastes became more diverse when they they reduced their algorithmically-driven consumption and increased their user driven consumption. Seems pretty obvious when you think about it... Link to the study: research.atspotify.com/2020/12/algorithmic-effects-on-the-diversity-of-consumption-on-spotify/

[@--.--]

bruh I hate these types of videos when people start their script from the beginning of the universe

[@Slurkz]

Great video, thanks! One thing: your background music is way too loud (and too busy in the stereo spectrum).

[@RaisedMedia]

Noted! Thanks for letting me know

[@Slurkz]

@@RaisedMedia 👍🏻 On second thought/listen I was exaggerating, it's not "way" too loud. Just too loud. Especially on headphones where this is emphasised by the wide stereo spread of some of the bg-tracks.

[@RaisedMedia]

@@Slurkz Well regardless it’s good feedback. I’ve really been struggling with the background audio. Before I upload I test it on 3 different audio outputs. Studio headphones, bookshelf speakers and AirPod pros. The background audio levels are hilariously inconsistent once uploaded to KZbin.

[@Slurkz]

@@RaisedMedia Aha! The unfathomable and dreaded KZbin dynamic compression algorithm. Thanks for your concern regarding the audio. To make things worse: it is thinkable different viewers might get differently processed audio depending on which platform/device or internet connection (speed) they use.

[@agnicosmos2278]

great video

[@RaisedMedia]

Thanks!

[@notion12]

Great video!

[@RaisedMedia]

Great comment!

[@olehtkach8299]

Keep making videos, you will be huge one day

[@RaisedMedia]

Thank you! That’s the dream :)

[@sasacabalquinto]

I love youtube! ❤

[@healthierpregnancy]

Change the color of the Spotify logo and "Ruined" to both red color..... It may help with your CTR.... Just a suggestion... It may not work out but I just thought of it.👍🏽

[@RaisedMedia]

Thanks for the tip! I have followed your instruction, we shall see if it works out...The CTR is currently at 4.3% so definitely room for improvement.

[@RQBtv]

This is why I just use an unlocked APK. Why pay a continuously increasing fee for any of it if it will always trickle down to cents on every dollar to the artist?