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Comment by numair | Hacker News Reader

Considering all of the dirty tricks and favoritism between Spotify and Facebook, I’m not sure they are the right messengers for this.

Oh, and one of the early execs involved with Spotify told me, point blank, “that man needs to die already” in reference to Steve Jobs before his passing. Yeah, I was just as shocked as you might be in reading that. I doubt I was the only one aware of such dark sentiments.

The executive team at Apple is probably looking at this website and thinking, “sorry but not sorry.” Making life difficult for Spotify could be seen as a way to carry on Steve’s legacy.

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"Making life difficult for Spotify could be seen as a way to carry on Steve’s legacy" - how does this benefit me as an Apple customer?

You might have forgotten this because the market has copied almost everything they’ve done, all of their aesthetic choices, etc — Apple creates products that are highly, highly opinionated. The Apple consumer isn’t buying access to a generic computing device, they are buying a point of view.

Sometimes that point of view is compatible with what you, personally, want. Sometimes it’s clearly obnoxious and Apple needs to change course. No matter what the case may be, however, it’s still a situation of a very specific point of view being sold to a consumer that has actively made a choice that this is, in fact, the point of view that suits their needs.

You’ve got to remember that the iPhone was an EXTREME case of this. The entire mobile industry thought the whole touch screen typing thing was never going to work at scale. I myself wasn’t completely convinced. Yet here we are. You can’t have the good without the bad.

I agree with this for the most part - it is just that time has shown that that POV has changed (such as allowing native apps and the app store ecosystem for one). I just don't think that carrying on a grudge against a product that is hugely popular with users (but of course is not without its own downsides) based on a point of view that was held nearly 10 years ago is a particularly sensible way to go about things.

For the most part I'd definitely agree, Apple has done some great things that went away from the established norms - but in this case, given that the song I listen to on Spotify will sound identical to listening to it on Apple music, the whole thing does stink of Apple giving itself the upper hand.

This does not ring true to my experience.

I was at the Spotify office the day the news of Steve's untimely death broke. It was a solemn day, and the the one senior executive I spoke to expressed true sorrow, as if a longtime friend had passed. Jobs was incredibly respected by the Spotify crew, as far as I'm concerned.

You’re talking about the rank and file, my friend. I’m talking about people who had billions of dollars on the line.

On 5 October 2011, Spotify was a freshly minted single-billion unicorn. Factually, no-one had plural billions of dollars on the line at that time, not even the senior exec I quoted.

Spotify was also comparatively small at the time, with limited hierarchy. The entire office - execs and rank-and-file alike - was respectful, with a fair number visibly upset and mourning.

What are the dirty tricks you're mentioning?

And I'm not shocked about your comment, as I don't really believe it. I don't think HN should be a place to spread gossip and possibly lies like this.

There’s been several lawsuits’ worth of material uncovering highly preferential treatment afforded to Spotify by Facebook, which both parties pretended didn’t exist. I’m sure a Google search can help you out with this one.

As for your second comment, well... You’re aware that the parent post is a website that was specifically created to ax-grind, right?

But the parent post is a website with verifiable claims. You making up hearsay is not. And it's not even relevant.

Your comment is effectively only gossip and broad accusations. Leaving your anecdote aside, what dirty tricks and favoritism do you have in mind exactly?

Considering your other comment with "billion dollar investors" in a company that was barely worth 1 billion dollars back then, this definitely reads like a made-up story.

Doesnt really matter where the sentiment comes from if we’re to have an efficient economy. There should be more choices available. Any idea what made the spotify execs wish death on Jobs?

'Any idea what made the spotify execs wish death on Jobs?'

Does it honestly matter? First of all its probably just a joke. But second of all if we assume he said it the day he died that means the joke was made in 2011 when Spotify was a small company. When chances are the joke was made when they were still just in Sweden.

You’re not really painting Apple in a good light here, either.

I have no idea what kind of justification you are trying to make for Apples behaviour here, but you think it is justifiable. If this was Microsoft instead of Apple you would probably be on Spotify's side. And it should not matter if it is Spotify or someone else, Spotify have the money and resources to be able to try and fight apple, so many other app makers don't and Apple shits all over them.

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