Smart move for Spotify, foreboding news for Genius.
This is also a cautionary lesson for founders about raising at inflated valuations--Genius's series B raise at close to a $1B post-money val will make it more difficult for them to exit with an acquisition.
(In fairness, they completed that round with the intent of "annotating the internet", not becoming the music content platform they've since pivoted to.)
Yes, I remember they tried to expand, but it didn't catch on.
I think it may be because at it's heart Genius feels to me like a skinned/specialized Wikipedia, and Wikipedia already has other information covered. Lyrics are a good fit, because Genius has a format that suits itself well to annotating lyrics, and it is a reliable source for quality lyric content. So many lyrics sites other than Genius are horrible to look at and usually are riddled with ads and popups.
The other problem for Genius is that they've never really identified a profitable business at a scale that even remotely approaches their level of hype.
I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?). The platform works for it, and it feels like a natural transition to go from listening to music to listening to a podcast without leaving the platform.
The article even notes it's a higher margin business.
Spotify does have podcasts, including tech ones like a16z and Recode Decode. They even added speed adjustment if you like to listen on hyperspeed like me.
https://open.spotify.com/genre/podcasts-page
Oh yeah - totally. If they followed the Netflix model of generating great content, they could make a killing (and justify their market cap). Original podcasts would be cool, but even better would be backing artists, especially long tail or emerging bands. Spotify Records?
I'm not sure how long they've had them, but I discovered the podcast section sometime in the last six months or so. It's pretty great to go from listening music all day to picking back up on whatever podcast I've been listening to with just a couple of clicks all in the same platform.
When shall we see ”Netflix for audio”, meaning original content, either fact or fiction?
I think this would make sense, people are busy and have less time to spend watching stuff. Listening is easier to do on the move.
Original programming could be for example radio theatre or programs like Serial. This can be quite entertaining when it is done well. Production costs are much smaller than for video.
Serial was basically a Black Swan event dude, no one I know listens to narrative audio content when they could watch narrative video content instead.
It's true that listening is easier to do on the move, but people just prefer to listen to music. I've never met anyone who is more into podcasts than music.
TL;DR the market just isn't very big and what market there is has already been captured by podcast services.
It sounds like you need to meet more people or you need to provide evidence. Otherwise it’s just a lazy assertion providing no value to the conversation.
> I'm surprised Spotify hasn't broken into podcasts yet (or have they?).
Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way.
Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web.
Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order to increase the value of that platform.
The important bit is that the Spotify show isn't a podcast — no podcast app can play it. Spotify owns the listener relationship. They share stats with creators at their pleasure, if at all. It's a closed thing.
Apologies for what will seems like pedantry to some, but podcasting is the only open audio/video medium we've got.
> Do you consider, say, Stitcher Premium's original audio shows like Wolverine "podcasts?"
Stitcher does make at least some of their original content available as podcasts, which I think is great. Wolverine: The Long Night appears to be paid-only, but (for example) LeVar Burton Reads has a podcast.[1]
> …that service is certainly pitching that they are the same medium/art form as those in the open space.
It really looks that way. The domain for Wolverine: The Long Night is "wolverinepodcast.com", which to me says that Stitcher is intentionally leveraging podcasting's popularity to try and sell shows that aren't available as podcasts.
Considering that Stitcher was built on podcasting, I find this pretty distasteful.
If Spotify wants to win on podcast there is an easier way to do it: License podcast episodes with a two-week exclusive window. The ultra loyal fans and Twitterati will care but the podcast wont lose mass appeal.
Given the amount of listening data they have I was sure they'd have taken the Netflix route with regards to producing or orchestrating original content (i.e. this producer with these artists + brand partnerships tailored to audience = $$). I'm sure I am simplifying and this is much more complex than that, especially considering the legal maze that is music, but still. Their only innovation seems to have been in bespoke playlist generation.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 62.0 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
This is also a cautionary lesson for founders about raising at inflated valuations--Genius's series B raise at close to a $1B post-money val will make it more difficult for them to exit with an acquisition.
(In fairness, they completed that round with the intent of "annotating the internet", not becoming the music content platform they've since pivoted to.)
See Ben Horowitz's note: https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/
Marc Andreessen's note: https://genius.com/1102682
I think it may be because at it's heart Genius feels to me like a skinned/specialized Wikipedia, and Wikipedia already has other information covered. Lyrics are a good fit, because Genius has a format that suits itself well to annotating lyrics, and it is a reliable source for quality lyric content. So many lyrics sites other than Genius are horrible to look at and usually are riddled with ads and popups.
The article even notes it's a higher margin business.
It looks like they do have some (I see Amy Schumer's is tagged as such), but curious to see if they get into it more heavily.
Listened to this[0] recently.
0 : https://open.spotify.com/show/1QLjI1ptUhPEIYaaiJgZlh
NYT Article : https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/podcasts/caliphate-...
I think this would make sense, people are busy and have less time to spend watching stuff. Listening is easier to do on the move.
Original programming could be for example radio theatre or programs like Serial. This can be quite entertaining when it is done well. Production costs are much smaller than for video.
It's true that listening is easier to do on the move, but people just prefer to listen to music. I've never met anyone who is more into podcasts than music.
TL;DR the market just isn't very big and what market there is has already been captured by podcast services.
Shoot, I hate to see technical folks genericize "podcasts" this way.
Podcasts are a great and popular standards-based medium for distributing audio and video on the open web.
Proprietary platforms like Spotify ingest a small percentage of the best podcasts and make that content available to their customers via their proprietary platform in order to increase the value of that platform.
The important bit is that the Spotify show isn't a podcast — no podcast app can play it. Spotify owns the listener relationship. They share stats with creators at their pleasure, if at all. It's a closed thing.
Apologies for what will seems like pedantry to some, but podcasting is the only open audio/video medium we've got.
I'm assuming the answer is now, but that service is certainly pitching that they are the same medium/art form as those in the open space.
Stitcher does make at least some of their original content available as podcasts, which I think is great. Wolverine: The Long Night appears to be paid-only, but (for example) LeVar Burton Reads has a podcast.[1]
> …that service is certainly pitching that they are the same medium/art form as those in the open space.
It really looks that way. The domain for Wolverine: The Long Night is "wolverinepodcast.com", which to me says that Stitcher is intentionally leveraging podcasting's popularity to try and sell shows that aren't available as podcasts.
Considering that Stitcher was built on podcasting, I find this pretty distasteful.
[1] https://rss.art19.com/levar-burton-reads
Given the amount of listening data they have I was sure they'd have taken the Netflix route with regards to producing or orchestrating original content (i.e. this producer with these artists + brand partnerships tailored to audience = $$). I'm sure I am simplifying and this is much more complex than that, especially considering the legal maze that is music, but still. Their only innovation seems to have been in bespoke playlist generation.
1) it makes playback stop when I'm driving. It's hard to get it to start again. If the screen is off, please just play the song in place of the video.
2) the UI goes away when a video is playing so there's no way to see the playlist without jumping through hoops.
3) it wastes data. My family regularly nears the monthly limit, so this really matters to me.