Spotify Defends Facebook Sign-Up Requirement 286
An anonymous reader writes "Music service Spotify has got music lovers' tutus in a twist by insisting that new users have a Facebook account in order to sign up. The company has now defended the policy, stating, oddly, that the Facebook obligation would make sign-up easier."
Whats the problem? (Score:1, Insightful)
Well it makes NOT signing up easier... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Which other service? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd like to take you up on your offer. Which alternative to Spotify do you recommend for listeners in the United States?
Pirate Bay.
Re:Whats the problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't like it? Use another service.
And in that short post you claimed that all criticism is pointless.
Why criticize a movie? Watch another movie. Why review a game? Play another game. You don't like this Beatles song? How dare you say so - go listen to something else!
Re:Facebook karma (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone murmuring about privacy stuff won't be using a Google product as an alternative.
Piracy forever (Score:5, Insightful)
Piracy forever man. Accept no substitute!
Always a superior product. Always in the format the market wants. Even with a negligible price point, these dumb companies are just not agile enough.
No weird-ass, windows only client to download. No signup, lock-in and DRM.
The piracy scene has all the web 2.0 social crap like the commercial sites now, so you can talk about the shit you're pirating.
Pure win.
Re:Facebook karma (Score:4, Insightful)
Before facebook was MySpace. Mass migration/hemorrhaging of users is not unprecedented in recent social networking history.
Re:Which other service? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or maybe they will feel that a pool of 800m potential subscribers is enough for them.
The pool of Internet users with FaceBook is smaller than the pool of Internet users. However you put it, by requiring FaceBook, they eliminated a lot of potential customers. And I am not sure what they got by doing this...
Re:Just a shot in the dark here (Score:5, Insightful)
"Don't make me think" is fine if there's indeed only one plausible action. But FB is not the passport for the Internet, no matter how many people keep saying that. As a result, putting in one action that doesn't apply to a significant chunk of people is worse than giving them options they don't need.
Not to mention: do you REALLY want FB to be the defacto passport for the Internet? Especially as a company whose only ability to hold on to people is their user preferences, which are now shared with FB?
Re:Venn Diagram (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Desktop vs Mobile Listening (Score:5, Insightful)
I really don't understand what difference it makes to them if the stream end point is my phone or a computer.
They know that people who'll spend $600 on an iPhone won't notice that they're also spending twice as much for their music as someone with a computer.
Re:Which other service? (Score:5, Insightful)
They have every right not to but it's in my interest if they change, and presumably in their interest to have me as a customer. We're asking for a solution in which we both benefit. Hardly unreasonable.
Re:Whats the problem? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think you get it. Colonel Korn is saying that the criticism can be valid, whether Spotify has the right to make this decision or not. He's not suggesting that those who criticize Spotify for this decision should continue using the service begrudgingly - in fact, I'm sure many who are criticizing Spotify on this forum have never used it and don't intend to - but that doesn't invalidate their criticisms.
To me, "Don't like it? Use another service" seems to say, "don't make an issue of that which you disagree with unless it is forced upon you." While following this maxim may result in less whiners throughout the world, it would also result in turning a blind eye to that which is deserving of criticism. To which I have to say: "Don't like trivial criticisms? Don't visit Slashdot."