Tag: Spotify

Spotify minus Joni Mitchell reminds us that social media is more like a parking lot than a paradise

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Feb. 3, Jared Schroeder, associate professor of journalism at SMU Dallas and a specialist in Frist Amendment issues, for a piece that explains the business motivations of Spotify and the options consumers have if they don’t wish to support unregulated social media platforms. Published in the Houston Chronicle under the heading: Spotify minus Joni Mitchell reminds us that social media is more like a parking lot than a paradise : https://bit.ly/3GoUOhp

Great. Now we can’t listen to Joni Mitchell on Spotify anymore.

But we can still listen to “The Joe Rogan Experience,” whatever that is.

Spotify, thanks to Neil Young, was shoved into the blaring, often unintelligible, spotlight of the national content-moderation conversation last week.

It joined Meta, which is what Facebook wants us to call it now, Twitter, and YouTube, all of whom continue to experience criticism for very public growing pains about how they handle how people use their spaces.

Young gave the music-streaming giant an ultimatum: Remove Rogan’s popular podcast because it’s communicating false and misleading health information or take his music off the platform. Spotify chose to remove Young’s music, and Mitchell asked her music be removed as well.

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Microsoft Bid to Purchase Activision-Blizzard Is Less About the Metaverse and More About Marketing

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Jan. 31, Gary Brubaker, director of Guildhall, the graduate program for game development at SMU Dallas, for a piece defining the marketing approach Microsoft is adopting in the video game sector following the purchase of Activision-Blizzard. Published in Inside Sources under the heading Microsoft Bid to Purchase Activision-Blizzard Is Less About the Metaverse and More About Marketing: https://bit.ly/3gfKqy0

Don’t buy into the hype about this being a move by Microsoft to own the Metaverse. But it is a strong signal that MS is in the game to stay.

The Metaverse is coming, and it will change our lives. However, Microsoft purchasing Activision-Blizzard is about making Game Pass the dominant game subscription service.

Consumers have shown they prefer the all-you-can-eat subscriptions for consuming media, including books (Kindle), music (Spotify), and movies/TV (Netflix). Subscriptions provide corporations with valuable consistent revenue. However, none of the current subscription strategies map clearly to video games. Many companies have tried to bring the Netflix model to video games. To date, they have ranged from failures (Stadia) to moderate successes (Apple Arcade), but none has at the Netflix level.

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