Many people spend lots of time carefully creating playlists, consider them theirs, and would like to bring them with if and when they switch vendors.
> Why should Spotify go out of their way to make it easier for me to switch off of their platform.
The problem is that (allegedly) Spotify was fine with this, and then they weren't. Yes, everyone should know that everyone dependent on a platform is subject to their whims. However, it's still possible to find empathy with the author.
They've also recently started showing promoted tracks in "Release Radar" & "Discovery Weekly" which cannot be disliked. Just another reason to keep your mind open to other services.
I assume OP found spotify's actions hypocritical, which is why they posted this.
Then the question is whether we should see spotify's 'time to play fair' website as a true statement of principle, or a cynical attempt to sway public opinion against actions that harm it as a business, but that it would be more than happy to engage in itself if it were in apple's position.
Spotify's complaint against Apple is that they're abusing the App Store platform to an anticompetitive end because non-Apple apps have disadvantages on the platform that Apple's competing apps don't.
I think this owning-the-platform-while-also-selling-on-it situation we see Apple, Amazon, and others in is something that we will see formal regulations appear on in the coming decade.
For example if it just bought two podcast companies?
That situation would be more comparable to Netflix since you're just paying a bundled subscription and you're getting 3rd-party work as well as Netflix originals. While openness would be awesome to have, they don't really have any obligation to provide it.
Of course it's not exactly like Netflix since you can self-publish onto Spotify so there's wrinkles. But my point is that it's a lot different than operating a buying/selling marketplace.
But they are doing some things the same as netflix, in that they are also creating exclusive podcasts to drive traffic to their platform.
It is. They do a lot of product placement (https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/is-product-placement-g...).
They also don't have to pay others for views, though I expect that to be less of a motivation.