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iso, to news in Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch
@iso@lemy.lol avatar

So they’re using our data and also getting paid for it 😄 I want to ditch it but can’t find an alternative that simple and with wide library.

Onii-Chan,
@Onii-Chan@kbin.social avatar

InnerTune is what finally got me to ditch Spotify. It's free, no account required, uses YouTube Music (so imo, a wider range of content) AND shuffle is genuinely random.

8bitguy,

Deezer is decent.

pollen,

You mean deezent?

Albin7326,
@Albin7326@suppo.fi avatar

Why not use youtube music via a foss client ? Or just use spottube.

WarmSoda,

YouTube with an ad block/an api. It has every song and album on it, you can make playlists and there’s a million playlists already on it.

pollen,

Not lossless, so it’s not comparable.

WarmSoda,

Then buy the music and use a media player.

pollen,

Less convenient and you lose music discovery. Also not comparable.

wagesj45,
@wagesj45@kbin.social avatar

So they’re using our data and also getting paid for it

Yeah? Isn't that the point of paying for a music service? I pay, they give me access to music and curate it in a way that would be enjoyable to me. How could they do that without some information about me? This is a prime example of what a company should use your data for.

This logic is really sending me, man.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Tidal has better sound quality and works just as well

pollen,
entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

OK, didn’t say it was. Just said the sound quality was better than Spotify

pollen,

With Spotify going lossless, I don’t see how Tidal’s sound quality can be “better”.

Unless if you’re referring to Spotify’s current sound quality—in which case you’re making a meaningless comparison.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

My comment was in the present tense. I thought that much was self-explanatory.

Tidal offers their “lossless” audio at their lowest tier, for Spotify it’ll cost $20/month. The article we’re all here commenting on mentions how Spotify previously announced and then failed to launch their Hifi service.

Suffice it to say I don’t think this is as clear cut of a case as you’re making it out to be

ensignrick,
@ensignrick@startrek.website avatar

I’ve had a Spotify sub for 10+ years. I’m getting really close to ditching it because imo the app design is getting worse as prices increase… I was super disappointed in the car thing too. Spotube is a really nice alternative that’s foss. Checkout spotube.netlify.app.

verysoft,

Yesss, it's UX was the main selling point it had over competitors and why I also kept with it. It has slowly started going down hill with all these library and playlist changes they have seemingly made for no reason at all, while they keep ignoring user requested features. Will check out this spotube.

AlexWIWA,

Every ui update makes the app significantly worse

audiomodder,

I’ve been using Apple Music for a couple years now and I’m pretty satisfied with it. I moved because Spotify pays artists atrociously and Apple is at least a little better. There hasn’t been much I haven’t been able to find, since there are a lot of services out there that will handle the release of music to multiple platforms easily.

Rai,

I went from flac hoarding to Apple Music because they have lossless by default, and I love it. I still hoard flacs, but now when I’m not at home I have most all of the songs I love, lossless.

strangerloop,

Tidal’s pretty good, they cost the same as spotify but all accounts have access to lossless. The playlists it makes for me are no worse than spotify’s and I can sleep happy knowing the artists I listen to get compensated better than on either Spotify or Apple Music.

I also feel the app’s design helps me see music in the context of the album it was released in instead of as random tracks, which has made me reconnect with some kinds of music I’d grown apart from after I got Spotify.

Ghoelian,

Tidal’s base subscription costs the same as spotify, but to get lossless you have to pay more. Where I live it’s 20 euros / month for lossless.

java,

I decided to give it a try.

https://i.imgur.com/9qaysjT.png

An ‘invalid’ character in a password, that’s just great.

WarmSoda, to news in ChatGPT's mobile app hit record $4.58M in revenue last month, but growth is slowing | TechCrunch

Oh no! Growth is slowing!! Everyone panic! Aaaahhhhhh

otter, to news in Buzzy social app Fizz sues rival Sidechat over unfair competition practices | TechCrunch

This isn’t really world news, it’s not even important tech news

Just two random startups competing over funding?

GameWarrior, to news in Buzzy social app Fizz sues rival Sidechat over unfair competition practices | TechCrunch

I have never heard of either of these apps.

AlexWIWA, to news in Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch

Finally, lossless audio.

Overzeetop,

Good news: you now have access to streaming lossless audio

Bad news: Nearly every device people use now connects through Bluetooth, which doesn’t support lossless audio.

AlexWIWA,

Thankfully I am a Luddite with wires hanging off of every limb

SLaSZT, to news in You can now react to messages on Gmail | TechCrunch
@SLaSZT@kbin.social avatar

I'm struggling to think of a use case for this. Why not just reply and put an emoji in there?

GunnarRunnar,

Are you talking generally about emoji reactions or just when it comes to email?

rgb3x3,

I would think just email. Who uses email for anything other than formal communication anymore where it would be inappropriate to use emoji reactions?

Reactions are fine for casual messaging, but email just isn’t that kind of social platform.

bermuda,

I assume it’s to cut down on wasted space from “thumbs up” and “Okay” emails.

SLaSZT,
@SLaSZT@kbin.social avatar

I thought it would be obvious because of the article headline, but email reactions. It's undeniable that emoji are useful for communication, I'm just not convinced that this particular interaction with an email is anything that anyone asked for or needs.

The only use case I can imagine would be for school/work accounts, but this feature isn't supported for those types of accounts yet. I'd assume that's because it's not yet integrated into the Office 365 platform.

The question remains: who outside of a corporate environment needs this? Maybe large families who communicate through chain emails? I honestly don't know anyone who uses email to have group chats anymore, but I suppose those people must exist. Just seems like it would be a small number.

anothermember,

I thought you just reply with the letter “J” that’s the convention, right?

Pons_Aelius, to news in Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch

I'm really getting tired of every new product announcement having AI tacked on in some way.

Lanthanae,
@Lanthanae@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

To be fair, Spotify’s recommendation system is the only algorithmic content feed that I feel actually gets me the kind of stuff I want rather than just exploiting my psyche, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Spotify’s AI integration is likewise the only of it’s kind that has real benefit.

It could also be completely useless, who knows 🤷

Pons_Aelius,

algorithmic content

That's my point. I am not knocking the feature, just the marketing push now to call an algorithm feed AI.

I doubt there has been any actual change in the feed just the term.

It is buzzword bullshit.

Max_P,
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

It is buzzword bullshit.

And a fad, probably. Everyone's trying to capitalize on the wow effect of ChatGPT.

Before AI it was neural network, and before that it was machine learning.

Mac,

“it’s buzzword bullshit” because it works.

Pons_Aelius,

The fact we are complaining about it means...

pollen,

… nothing, because people on the internet complain about everything. Every time. I mean, this service isn’t even out yet, so there hasn’t even been a chance to evaluate their music discovery algorithm.

I understand and relate with the frustration regarding the whole “more streaming services, higher fees” thing that’s still continuing in the industry, though. I mean, $20 a month for just music?! There are competing services that offer lossless audio at a lower price. But yeah—streamflation sucks!

wagesj45,
@wagesj45@kbin.social avatar

If it's a neural network doing it, then that's fine.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Even that’s a fairly new standard for calling something AI. Video Game enemy algorithms have always been called AI, for instance, regardless of their underlying technologies. That’s part of why people tend to use ML (Machine Learning) as an alternative term: AI has meant a lot of things over the years and the term is so general that using it to refer to e.g. LLMs (Large Language Models) is just confusing

wagesj45,
@wagesj45@kbin.social avatar

I think we just have to accept that marketing has to dumb down and generalize for the mass market.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Well yes, but my point is that “AI” is so broad a term and open to so many interpretations as to mean absolutely nothing about the tech in question.

saigot, (edited )

IDK I think it’s pretty cool to have a voice that knows my name and tells me the theme of the next few tracks. I really wish I could give it some more feedback but as it is it’s a small but nice addition sometimes that isn’t possible without the recent AI advancements. I wouldn’t pay more for it though.

jcarax,

There’s way too much emphasis on a few songs from each artist that seem to make them more money, or are otherwise pushed by the record companies. AI or not, if it gets me deeper tracks in my daily mixes and artist radios, I’ll pay the extra for that and lossless.

CmdrShepard,

I used to really enjoy the Discover Weekly lists but for the past few years it just pushes what sounds like AI generated music. It’s like a bunch of covers of popular music done by people I’ve never even heard of (who probably cost Spotify less $ per play). I’ve had better luck with stuff like Spot-a-like recommending new/similar music that I actually might like.

SugarApplePie,
@SugarApplePie@beehaw.org avatar

There’s a lot of commotion about how so many Jazz tracks that pop up in Spotify playlists come from clearly made up bands with one or two songs, millions of views, and no internet presence anywhere outside of Spotify.

thejml,

At least we moved on from everything being blockchain I guess. I was over that trend. Wonder how long AI will be a buzzword.

Pons_Aelius,

Wonder how long AI will be a buzzword.

Until the next one comes along.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

It’s been a buzzword for like 50 years now, if you count video games/computer chess

CosmoNova,

As if Spotify wasn‘t bordering bloatware territory already. Just give me a music subscription service without the dozenth of functions I will never use or „recommendations“ that are clearly just paid ads and don‘t fit my taste at all.

Plume, to news in Brave lays off 9% of its workforce | TechCrunch

Brave? You mean the privacy focused web browser which marketing’s is so awful I can’t get myself to trust it, due to how much of it looks like a malware crypto scam, who was made by an asshole who was outed from Mozilla for being a homophobic asshole? Yeah. Fuck Brave.

adespoton, to news in Brave lays off 9% of its workforce | TechCrunch

Brave had a workforce? I thought it was one guy’s pet chromium/blockchain project….

macallik,

The owner is the guy who created JavaScript and is funded by controversial right-winger Peter Thiel

belated_frog_pants,

Also donates money to anti-lgbtq groups

Bitrot,
@Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

$1,000 to a campaign in 2008. A majority of Californians voted that way, btw. Good chance many of those millions of voters (and campaign donators) make your tech.

He’s done other things like his covid noise, continuing to use that one 15 years later shouldn’t sway many.

falsem,

What is this wikiless site?

macallik,

It's a free, open source alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy.

https://github.com/Nangjing/wikiless

Basically you search wikipedia w/o tracking.

_MusicJunkie,

No JavaScript or ads. (…) Prevents Wikipedia getting your IP address.

Wikipedia is light on JavaScript and has never had ads. You prevent Wikipedia from getting your IP address but instead reveal it to some random third party, combined with letting them know everything you look up.

What the hell is the point of this. All this does it confuse people and decrease privacy.

macallik, (edited )

This is going increasingly off topic.

  1. Yes wikipedia does have ads every time they fundraise
  2. I use libredirect to complete privacy-focused searches across various front-ends, from YouTube to Reddit to Wikipedia, and my searches are distributed across various instances, so no, a single random third party is not getting all of my searches.
  3. 'The point' is to share an article on the guy who owns Brave. I've provided additional context about wikiless as requested, but if you need more context moving forward, please do a google search.
alfonsojon,
@alfonsojon@beehaw.org avatar

They have ads to fundraise. Wikipedia is one of the greatest archives of knowledge in history. Their clients and website are open source powered by MediaWiki. Of all the sites to use a privacy friendly frontend for, I’d have Wikipedia at the very bottom.

The_Terrible_Humbaba,
@The_Terrible_Humbaba@beehaw.org avatar

He created JavaScript?!?!

I can excuse controversial right-wing views and homophobia, but I draw the line at creating JavaScript!

ram, to news in You can now react to messages on Gmail | TechCrunch
@ram@bookwormstory.social avatar

Why?

Rentlar,

🤷‍♀️

Semi-Hemi-Demigod, to news in Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

Hasn’t Pandora had “AI playlists” for like 15 years?

Bitrot,
@Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

So has Spotify, and off and on the enable or disable easy access. In the past it was Spotify stations (standalone app), for a while you could create recommendation playlists based on artists, genres, or decades. Now they do it for you by making playlists like those themselves, “mix” playlists, “day list”, suggestions in shuffle, never ending playlists, and a bunch of other similar things that attempt to select things they think you’ll like.

Every Noise at Once shows some of the linkages using a ton of their dynamically generated genre playlists: everynoise.com

Overzeetop,

Pandora’s entire reason for being was essentially a ML (/AI) exercise to fingerprint and associate music. It’s still pretty brilliant, really.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

I've been a paying subscriber since 2007 and it's given me so much new music I'd never have heard of without it.

Oddly enough, regardless of the station, it'll play me some Johnny Cash. Metal station? Johnny Cash. Punk station? Johnny Cash. Funk station? Believe it or not, Johnny Cash. I have the best Pandora in the world thanks to Johnny Cash.

lolola, to news in You can now react to messages on Gmail | TechCrunch
@lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

HR: This email is to inform you of concerns about your professionalism in the workplace.

Me: 👍 🎉 😂

Send_me_nude_girls,

🥵🤤🍆👅💦💦

HurlingDurling,

HR: 🎀☠️

SugarApplePie, to news in Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch
@SugarApplePie@beehaw.org avatar

Wow if there’s one thing I really want to pay extra for is to have a computer randomly pick my music based off what I like. That’s way better than what Spotify has already been doing: randomly picking music based off what I like! True innovation. Will the service also come with some sort of slider or bar that I can use to change how loud or quiet a song is? Maybe some other buttons that can let me skip or go back to a song, even pause and play it to my liking?

anachronist,

They don’t think these features are compelling. The purpose of this is to create a new pricing tier so that later they can make it the (not-actually) ad-free tier and make the current (not-actually) ad-free tier have (more) ads.

emptyother, to news in You can now react to messages on Gmail | TechCrunch

Eh… They chose to use the email protocol to send each emoji?! So external users or third-party clients (or school and work accounts for some reason) will be spammed. Won’t a bunch of gmails get marked as spammers then?

skullgiver,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

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  • Chobbes,

    Which RFCs are you referring to?

    skullgiver,
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

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  • Chobbes,

    Thanks :). I’ve actually been looking for the RSVP stuff and I wasn’t sure which RFC to look through (wasn’t sure if it was in the CalDAV one or the iCalendar one… and they’re weirdly huge). I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction!

    Also was curious how they were implementing reactions in e-mail. I actually think it’s a good feature, and it’s one that’s slowly been making it into XMPP and stuff. Emoji reactions and stuff sound kind of dumb and like a “whatever, who cares?” feature, but I find that on platforms like slack they’re actually a really good way to deal with quickly confirming something / finalizing decisions / quickly gauging the opinion of a group. I think a huge problem with e-mail and instant messaging is that they can be quite noisy, so having a “quiet” way to respond without having a thread explode is actually pretty welcome in my opinion.

    neptune, to news in Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch

    The AI Dj was promising, but broken.

    Would be cool to tell Spotify “make an angry Playlist I would have like in 2012” or “play music from fantasy films” or whatever. But worth that much more per month? Hmm

    smoof,

    It needs an option to turn off the commentary. I can't stand it.

    floofloof,

    Isn’t the inane commentary the only thing that distinguishes the AI DJ from the other playlists Spotify generates each day?

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