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Spotify, Match, Tile Exec to Appear as Witnesses at Apple, Google Antitrust Hearing

Charlotte Henry ·

Executives from Spotify, Match, and Tile will appear as witnesses at Wednesday’s Senate antitrust hearing into Apple and Google, Bloomberg News reported. All the firms have clashed with Apple in the past.

Google Senior Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy Wilson White will be the search giant’s representative, joining Apple Chief Compliance Officer Kyle Andeer in the spotlight. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, which is holding the hearing, also plans to call Horacio Gutierrez, Kirsten Daru, and Jared Sine, top legal executives from Spotify, Tile and Match Group, respectively. Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, will also be called. Spotify, Tile and Match have all been embroiled in antitrust fights with Apple recently, with Spotify and Match filing complaints about Apple’s App Store rules and fees. Tile believes Apple’s Find My app will give the company’s rumored AirTags accessory for finding physical objects a leg up over third-party rivals.

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Spotify Launches First Hardware Product - Car Thing - in U.S.

Charlotte Henry ·

Spotify launched in-car entertainment system Car Thing in the U.S. on Tuesday, TechCrunch reported. It’s the company’s first ever hardware product.

The company explained its interest in Car Thing is about solving a need for customers who want a “more seamless” and personalized in-car listening experience. Although many cars today support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, Spotify points out that the average age of a car in the U.S. is actually 11 years old and the average lifetime of cars is 18 years. That means there are still a large number of cars on the road that don’t support modern, in-car infotainment systems. Car Thing is being introduced to serve this market — and likely, to give Spotify the opportunity to explore future business models where it has a more direct relationship with customers inside the vehicle, though the company isn’t speaking to its longer-term ambitions at this time.

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'Hey Spotify' In-App Command Now Available on iOS and Android

Charlotte Henry ·

Spotify users on both iOS and Android can now use the phrase ‘Hey Spotify’, GSMArena reported. It activates the audio-streaming app’s built-in voice search when the screen is on and the app itself is open.

A notification was received by the Spotify app. It brought us to a screen that prompted us to turn on “Hey Spotify”. Saying the wake phrase will prompt Spotify’s built-in voice search while the screen is on and the Spotify app is open. This means that the app is continuously listening for the wake phrase. Spotify’s privacy policy for voice data usage states that Spotify says it only holds recordings and transcriptions of the searches that you perform when tapping the voice button or saying the wake phrase. The feature doesn’t really add any function outside of enabling Spotify’s own voice search for hands-free use.

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Spotify Looks to Take on Clubhouse With New Live Audio Experience

Charlotte Henry ·

Spotify announced Tuesday that it had acquired the creators of live audio app Locker Room, and will be moving into that space. The move is part of its attempts to take on Clubhouse.

“Creators and fans have been asking for live formats on Spotify, and we’re excited that soon, we’ll make them available to hundreds of millions of listeners and millions of creators on our platform,” said Gustav Söderström, Chief Research & Development Officer at Spotify. “The world already turns to us for music, podcasts, and other unique audio experiences, and this new live audio experience is a powerful complement that will enhance and extend the on-demand experience we provide today.” In the coming months, Spotify will evolve and expand Locker Room into an enhanced live audio experience for a wider range of creators and fans. Through this new live experience, Spotify will offer a range of sports, music, and cultural programming, as well as a host of interactive features that enable creators to connect with audiences in real time. We’ll give professional athletes, writers, musicians, songwriters, podcasters, and other global voices opportunities to host real-time discussions, debates, ask me anything (AMA) sessions, and more.

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Spotify CEO Discusses 'Play[ing] Nice' With Apple and Other Rivals

Charlotte Henry ·

Spotify is expanding its slate of original podcasts. However, CEO Daniel Ek explained to The Verge that his firm wants its content across all platforms, including Apple’s operating systems, and is unlikely to make its own hardware.

I would have been a lot more concerned if consumers were locked into just one ecosystem. If it was just an Apple, or just a Google, or just an Amazon that kind of owned the consumer across their entire ecosystem. That is a very concerning development, if it were to be true. But I think the good news is what we’re finding is that while Apple, for instance, is very strong on mobiles in many markets, we’re finding Amazon is very strong in their homes, and most of the cars today are being built on Android Auto, which is Google’s ecosystem. And the one thing that is true about Spotify is we play nice on all of them, and I believe we’re the only player that has that relationship where we’re now on 2,000 devices, and we play nice on all of them.

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Spotify Finally Testing Live Lyrics Feature in U.S.

Charlotte Henry ·

Spotify is finally rolling out its Live Lyrics feature to some users in the U.S, Engadget reported. Equivalent features are widely available on rivals Apple Music and Deezer.

It’s worth noting that Spotify’s “new” approach to lyrics — which is once again powered by Musixmatch — isn’t really all that new. The company has been testing the feature in markets around the world for years, and officially launched it in 26 markets — including Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, India and more — around the middle of 2020. More recently, live lyrics were also made available to users in South Korea when the service launched there earlier this month. At the risk of sounding a little obvious, though, not every test market ultimately gets access to the feature at wide scale. Spotify, for instance, ran a similar test in Canada before discontinuing it around June 2020; to our knowledge, the feature has never reappeared. This move puts Spotify on more even footing with competing services like Apple Music and Deezer, and should help the company from losing competitors to more feature-rich rivals.

This Person Hacked His iPod to Stream Spotify Using Raspberry Pi
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This Person Hacked His iPod to Stream Spotify Using Raspberry Pi

Andrew Orr ·

Guy Dupont recently hacked an old iPod to stream Spotify. He used a Raspberry PI Zero W and a custom UI built using Python. Additionally, he fitted a 1000 mAh batter into it, a motor for haptic feedback, and a 2-inch LCD Adafruit display. “My mother-in-law recently gifted me a bag of the family’s retired iPods. I had forgotten how good it feels to hold and use one of these things. Naturally, I decided to modify one. I wanted to supply some modern features (streaming, search, Bluetooth audio, etc), while paying homage to the amazing UX that Apple originally released almost 20 years ago.”

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Analysts Say Spotify’s Podcasting Isn’t Working Out

Andrew Orr ·

Citi analysts wrote to clients their belief that Spotify’s foray into podcasting hasn’t been working.

The cadence of Premium gross additions (through 3Q20) and app download data (through 4Q20) do not show any material benefit from recent podcast investments (that began in 2019). The firm downgraded the stock to sell from neutral. Spotify’s stock was down more than 6.5% in the afternoon.

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Spotify Resets User Passwords Over Data Leak

Andrew Orr ·

Spotify has reset an unknown number of user passwords after a bug in its system exposed private data to business partners.

In a data breach notification filed with the California attorney general’s office, the music streaming giant said the data exposed “may have included email address, your preferred display name, password, gender, and date of birth only to certain business partners of Spotify.” The company did not name the business partners, but added that Spotify “did not make this information publicly accessible.”

Fortunately, those like me who created a Spotify account using Sign In with Apple shouldn’t have too much information leaked.

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Fraud Operation Targets Spotify Users With Leaked Database

Andrew Orr ·

In a similar situation to a Facebook scam, researchers uncovered an unsecured database with over 380 million records in a potential Spotify hacking operation.

The origins of the database and how the fraudsters were targeting Spotify are both unknown. The hackers were possibly using login credentials stolen from another platform, app, or website and using them to access Spotify accounts.

Working with Spotify, we confirmed that the database belonged to a group or individual using it to defraud Spotify and its users. We also helped the company isolate the issue and ensure its customers were safe from attack.

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Spotify Considers a Subscription Podcast Service

Andrew Orr ·

Spotify could launch a subscription podcast service in the future, according to a report from Andrew Wallenstein.

The survey describes at least four possible subscription podcast plans, ranging from $3 to $8 per month. The cheapest plan would include “access to exclusive interviews and episodes,” but would still include ads. The most expensive plan would include access to “high quality original content,” early access to some episodes, and no platform-inserted ads. None of these plans would include access to Spotify’s premium music subscription.

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Changing its Tune, Spotify Lets You Transfer Songs Again

Andrew Orr ·

Two weeks ago SongShift wrote that Spotify wouldn’t let the app’s users transfer music out of Spotify anymore; they could only bring music into Spotify from other platforms. But now Spotify has changed its mind and it’s good to see.

With the release of SongShift v5.1.3, you will again be able to transfer playlists from Spotify to another service. The only caveat is, you have to have created the playlist yourself, or the playlist must be collaborative and followed by you.

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Spotify Limits Music Transfer App ‘SongShift’ for its Platform

Andrew Orr ·

SongShift is an app that helps you transfer your songs between different streaming services. But Spotify is putting its foot down. Users can transfer songs from other services to Spotify, but not transfer them out of Spotify.

To continue to provide some level of support for Spotify, we’ll still be supporting transferring from other services to Spotify. We will continue to roll out planned features for SongShift. Some quality of life improvements, some new supported services, and other things best left a surprise.

*Any new features will have the same limitation of not supporting transfers out of Spotify.

You’ve heard of Spotify, the company that criticizes Apple for alleged anti-competitive behavior.

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Spotify Doesn’t Like the Apple One Bundle, Calling it Unfair

Andrew Orr ·

Spotify doesn’t like the Apple One bundle, saying that Apple is abusing its dominant market position.

Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple’s anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.

Bundles save people money, therefore bundles are good for customers. As for competitors? At least Apple pays artists more. As for the dominant position claim, as of 2019 Apple Music has more paid subscribers in the U.S., but Spotify has more paid users in the world. As Neil Cybart said, this is just guerilla warfare of companies piling on against Apple because they’re not making as much money. As I say, cutthroat capitalism.