Chris Welch, The Verge:
Spotify is removing itself from a number of home audio speakers and receivers from the likes of Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, Bang & Olufsen, Pioneer, and Yamaha. Some devices are losing Spotify integration completely, while others will require firmware updates if users want to continue receiving built-in access to their music. The products in question were once all able to independently play Spotify over the internet — no smartphone required.
And:
[Spotify] announced this change was coming months and months ago. But at that time, things were still working as normal for users who would ultimately be impacted by the move. Over the last few weeks, the cutoff has actually occurred, and Spotify is getting a slew of complaints in its support forums about the lost functionality.
Curious timing. Is this strategy shift by Spotify related to Friday’s HomePod release? I can’t quite connect the dots, but hard to believe this is unrelated to HomePod, or to this Wall Street Journal report:
Apple Music is on the verge of overtaking Spotify AB in U.S. paid subscribers, a sign that the music-streaming world’s dominant force is facing growing competition ahead of its hotly anticipated public stock offering.
Interesting.
Spotify on phones is paid subscription only, right? If so it sounds like they want to convert these users from free to paid.
This could be one of the reasons Apple decided not to include Spotify support with the HomePod: It’s a liability. If the HomePod ships with Spotify support but one day Spotify goes under because its investors are tired of losing money every quarter or Spotify decides to stop supporting HomePod like one of these other speakers people will blame Apple, not Spotify (as we’ve seen in countless scenarios in the past).
Spotify are cheapskates trying to keep royalty payments down, while Apple has tried to improve payments to artists. Now they want to force people to pay for access to their stream? Makes sense. Just not the timing, like the Dave Mark said. But I doubt Apple is going to let Spotify play on the HomePod when you will be able to stream anything audio from your iDevices or Mac to the HomePod via AirPlay 2 when it arrives later this year.
You can do that now. No need for Airplay 2. Airplay 1 works just fine.
The stereo integration only works with a paid tier. I know because I have a Yamaha stereo with the Spotify integration, and a free account, and I cannot play via the stereo. It’s alright though because I AM a paid Apple Music Subscriber 😉
This mystifies me – if people who are paid Spotify subscribers get their receivers cut of, how is Spotify benefiting? Their customers will be upset and could quit Spotify altogether, thus losing them money. How is Spotify gaining money through this?
The only theory is getting rid of paid users who listen to too much music, thus making Spotify actually lose from their subscriptions??
Why does this need to be related to Apple, when it was announced months ago (presumably when everyone thought the HomePod was going to be released before Christmas)? If anything, this is terrible timing by Spotify because it gives those owners an incentive to get a new speaker, ditch Spotify and go with Apple Music.
Old web API being deprecated?
I don’t understand this situation either. Really hope someone could explain it.
Interesting theory.
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