Engadget: Spotify will shut down ‘Heardle’ on May 5th. “Spotify has some disappointing news for Heardle fans: the company is shutting down the song-guessing game, which it bought last summer. ‘Thanks for playing Heardle, but unfortunately we have to say goodbye,’ a message on the Heardle webpage reads. ‘From May 5th, Heardle will no longer be available.’”
Techdirt: Sometimes Open Systems Beat Those Who Try To Lock Them Up: Spotify’s Podcast Colonization Flops. “While it was, perhaps, an understandable move driven by the economics of our totally broken copyright systems which made it impossible to be truly profitable with just music, Spotify’s decision to go after the podcast market, shelling out massive dollars for podcast-focused companies like Gimlet Media and the Ringer, was all about taking a system based on open protocols — mainly mp3s and RSS — and trying to lock it up behind a proprietary moat.”
Lifehacker: This App Uses AI to Generate Custom Playlists. “PlaylistAI is an app that uses AI to help you create playlists easily, and it is compatible with Spotify and Apple Music. It lets you specify the kind of music you’re looking for and creates custom playlists for you. Here are a few ways you can use PlaylistAI to expand your musical horizons.”
Engadget: Spotify adds promised COVID-19 content advisory. ” Spotify has finally acted on its promise to add a COVID-19 content advisory label. As CNBC reports (and Engadget can confirm), you’ll now see a tab for a COVID-19 Guide when you visit podcasts and other content discussing the new coronavirus.”
BBC: Spotify stops streaming in Russia over safety concerns. “Spotify is pulling out of Russia citing a new law that threatens jail for spreading ‘fake news’ about the country’s armed forces. The music streaming company said safety concerns about staff and ‘possibly even our listeners’ had pushed it to fully suspend its free service.”
Mashable: A bot named Ashley is ruining playlists on Spotify. “The latest internet villain just reared its head and it isn’t a corporate mega-billionaire, wayward politician, or Twitter troll, but rather an unassuming Spotify bot named Ashley. Multiple users have complained that their public, collaborative playlists — designed to allow Spotify users and their friends to curate songs in real time together — have been commandeered by bots masquerading as normal users, primarily one account simply named ‘Ashley.’”
Washington Post: I’m disgusted by Joe Rogan’s weak apology. My former colleague’s death at 47 makes it worse.. “To my ears, Rogan sounded glib, narcissistic and clueless. And Spotify — the platform that enables him by insisting it would be wrong to restrain what he does on his podcast — is even worse. Its failure to take any meaningful responsibility, other than adding a few disclaimers, is all too reminiscent of the way Facebook, for years, has dodged accountability for spreading so many harmful lies. Rogan’s non-apology made me furious. Probably because I’ve been spending a lot of time this week thinking about Miguel Rodriguez, a former colleague of mine, who died of covid last week.”
BBC: India Arie and Graham Nash pull music from Spotify in Joe Rogan row. “Soul musician India Arie and British singer-songwriter Graham Nash have become the latest artists to ask Spotify to remove their music. They follow Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, who are boycotting the streaming service over Covid misinformation discussed by podcast host Joe Rogan.”
BBC: Joe Rogan pledges to try harder after Neil Young Spotify row. “Joe Rogan has pledged to try harder to offer more balanced views on his podcast, after he was criticised by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell for helping to spread Covid misinformation. The Canadian musicians asked to have their music pulled from the streaming platform as a result. Spotify has since said it is working to add advisory warnings to any podcast discussing Covid-19.”
The Verge: Here is the Spotify COVID content policy that lets Joe Rogan slide. “Spotify employees are vocally upset inside the company over the streaming platform’s deal with Joe Rogan due to his views on COVID vaccines, but their executive leadership has mostly stayed quiet both inside and outside the firm. Today, however, Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s head of global communications and public relations, posted a message to the company Slack addressing employee concerns about Joe Rogan’s presence on the platform after Neil Young removed his music in protest.”
BBC: Joni Mitchell wants songs off Spotify in Covid row. “In her message on Friday, Mitchell, whose hits include Big Yellow Taxi, said she stands in solidarity with the Canadian-American singer, Neil Young, and with the ‘global scientific and medical communities’. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have been friends for many years, and are both survivors of polio. They both contracted the disease in the early 1950s, not long before a vaccine became available.”
Rolling Stone: Neil Young Pulls Music from Spotify, Blasts It as the ‘Home of Life-Threatening’ Covid Lies. “Following Neil Young’s demands that his music be removed from Spotify in protest of dissemination of Covid-19 misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the streamer will take down his music, Young wrote in a letter on his website on Wednesday. Spotify also confirmed the news in their own statement.”
AFP: Neil Young demands Spotify remove his music over Joe Rogan ‘disinformation’. ” Neil Young demanded in an open letter to Spotify to remove his music from the platform he said is spreading vaccine disinformation via the popular podcaster Joe Rogan. ‘I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,’ wrote the legendary singer behind ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Harvest Moon.’”
Tubefilter: Spotify Shutters Internal Podcast Studio, Laying Off And Reassigning Staffers. “Spotify has shuttered its in-house podcast studio and laid off several staffers affiliated with the division. The studio, dubbed Studio 4 inside the company and referenced externally as Spotify Studios, was behind shows like Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls 1 Keith, Dissect, and Chapo: Kingpin on Trial.”
Tech Policy Press: Scientists, Doctors Call on Spotify to Implement Misinformation Policy Over Claims on Joe Rogan Show. “More than 260 doctors, nurses, scientists, health professionals and others have signed an open letter calling on the streaming media platform Spotify to ‘implement a misinformation policy’ in the wake of controversy over podcaster Joe Rogan’s promotion of an anti-vaccine rally with discredited scientist Robert Malone in an episode published on December 31st.”
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