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White Collar Criminals

CENTURY MEDIA PULLS OUT OF SPOTIFY, BURIES HEADS IN THE SAND

 Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 12:30pm by

Century Media

Fans hoping to stream music by Nachtmystium, Inrtronaut, Nevermore and hundreds of other Century Media artists on Spotify are suddenly out of luck: in a move that leaves little doubt as to why the recorded music industry is in the shitter (key word: recorded), the label has suddenly pulled all of its artists off of Spotify. Word on the street is that they’re holding out for a better deal that pays more on a per-stream basis.

Full disclosure: Century Media regularly purchases ad campaigns with MetalSucks. Spotify never has.

In a nutshell, the mistake Century is making is this: it’s all about the long-term, not the short-term, you dummies.

This is an incredibly tough pill for the Century suits to swallow — they’re more concerned with posting impressive numbers to lock in their next contract than developing the careers of the label’s bands — but the value in services like Spotify is not in generating immediate revenue for the label and its bands, but in exposing fans to new artists, strengthening that artist-to-fan bond over time, and then capitalizing long-term on merch items, tour tickets, sponsorships and the like. Discovering new music has never been easier, and as such there is incredible value in having a label’s catalogue on Spotify. These bands will see profit from this exposure down the road in the same way that giving away a free mp3 on MetalSucks as an exclusive track premiere can be a boon for pushing sales of their new album. If Century is desperate for short-term revenue because they haven’t got their artists in Management / 360 deals (they’re the same thing), well, sucks for them, but frankly that’s not my problem.

This is the Napster debacle all over again, deja vu. Labels more concerned with numbers now than benefit later. Instead of fighting against technology, Century should be embracing it and figuring out a way to make it work for them.

In other news, the CD is going to experience a miraculous resurrection and solve all of Century’s woes! Phew! For a second there I was worried this new “digital” thing might take over.

Do what you can to get Century back on Spotify: ping them on Facebook and Twitter and let them know that you think they’re missing the boat.

-VN

Tim: MacQueen

Tags: , ,
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cleber-Monteiro/100000392246968 Cleber Monteiro

    Who gives 2 shits about Spotify anyway?

    • Dingas McCloud

      I do. It’s the best thing to happen to music since the guitar.

      I guess this type of reaction was inevitable. I’m sure a few other labels will follow suit, though they shouldn’t.

    • Nonsensei

      This guy. Can’t wait to start paying.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cleber-Monteiro/100000392246968 Cleber Monteiro

        “It’s the best thing to happen to music since the guitar.”

        Yeah, right.

        • builtforsin

          Quality retort.

      • http://giantofthemountain.bandcamp.com Lordassenfroth

        they have a free version and it is amazing. i would at least try it before you talk shit about it.

        • treghet

          I tried it and there were a bunch of bands and albums in my library that they didn’t have. And I’m not talking about demo bands…

    • d.o.g.o.b.g.y.n.

      Blog writers who get paid to suck on Spotify’s dingleberries.

      • http://dystrophy.bandcamp.com devin townsend’s lost skullet

        ^this guy.

        looks like im going to be paying a lot less attention to century media bands for awhile. sucks for those bands, word of mouth is the way to go

    • Wayn

      Spotify is an AWESOME way to find new music. I’ve had Spotify for a few weeks now, and I’ve found TONS of new stuff! I’ve also bought a lot of digital music because of what I’ve found on Spotify.

      I don’t know what the future will hold, but Spotify is NOW, and CM is missing the boat.

      • Minimalist

        Spotify is ok, if slightly overrated. It has alot of missing songs from albums, and alot of songs not available in the USA. The stream sounds ok, but gets very tinny and staticy quickly on the free service.

        The ads are large, intrusive, and annoying. They are also not limited to just banners, they play as audio and sometimes get “caught” and nothing plays, just silence.

        There is nothing spotify has to offer that downloading and watching on YouTube already provide.

        If you want a superior music experience, check out turntable.fm. It’s much more pleasant and usable than spotify, has NO ADS, and is free for everyone as long as you’ve been invited.

        • http://farbeyonddriven87.tumblr.com Voltron Futura

          Or you could pay $10 bucks a month and not have any of those problems.

          • Memememe

            But here’s the part I don’t get, you have to have a smart phone to use the mobile app right? Is the digital service for that phone free? If thats not the case, does everyone here really have that much money to tack on something else when you can use torrent/pandora and CD’s for relatively free? I can afford a smart phone, but I already have a computer and internet at home. It just seems like spending money for the sake of spending money.

  • Android

    I will not be “ping”-ing anyone. Ever.

    • Metalsucks Tech Dumbasses

      Spotify sued for tracking cookie that regenerates itself after deletion.

      http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/080411spotifysued

      go ahead, open your personal computer up to people who make money off your stupidity.

      how about MetalSucks keeps posting about music/bands and leave the tech stuff to people who know what the fuck theyre talking about. digital media is still new enough to be a security risk if you are a n00b.

      • http://www.coreymitchell.com Corey Mitchell

        As is usually the case, there is more than one side to this story:

        http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/08/tracking-lawsuit/

        Sounds like Spotify jumped on this issue ASAP and nipped it in the bud before it became a real problem.

        Of course, all parties involved have PR reps to paint a certain picture.

        • Metalsucks Tech Dumbasses

          Ok, but would they have done the same thing if nobody called them on it?

          Or how about when the inevitable update to their service comes down the pike. Will it be back? Companies need to stop trending people, and circumventing privacy laws.

          Don’t feed me any crap about things being different today than some yester-year past. Companies can still turn a profit even without spurrious business practices. Streaming is a fad that will die off when people wise up to it, much like cloud computing will. Who wants to trust some faceless entity with their data? Certainly not a thinking individual. Want to secure your data? Buy an external harddrive.

  • drunkwithpower

    Spotify actually kind of sucks. Playing “stump the streaming service” has never been difficult, but their lackluster catalog just didn’t impress me. There are too many notable omissions and the sound quality is poor. And most importantly, I can’t take it with me on an ipod. It’s 2011, music is already free to those that don’t want to pay. It’s just another streaming service, there’s nothing remarkable about it.

    • OLD

      Well, you get 320 kbps on the $10/month version. Of course, even higher quality is preferred, but that’s in the future, for obvious reasons. $10/month is a steal for all that you can find. You could find more if Century Media would put their stuff back on it. Plus, you can put it on an iPhone/iPod touch with the paid version. People still use the older ones? I’m using Spotify on my iPhone all the time and it works great.

    • http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com Alkahest

      >lackluster catalog

      say what? Unless you only like underground grindcore bands that are taking refuge from North Korea or something rediculous like that, they have pretty much anything a metal fan would want. Well, before Century got a tight asshole about it.

      • Kye

        False. I’ve found quite a bit of what I wanted to be missing from Spotify. I mostly use it for more mainstream albums that I don’t particularly want to pay full price for.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Greer/597137573 James Greer

          This. I stopped using spotify after a day because I couldn’t find the same releases I could already stream from my Zune service. I don’t remember specifically. I only wish the Zune shit had facebook integration like spotify.

          • stu1

            Zune???

          • Jeff Burstmann

            “Zune”
            Kill yourself right now!

          • John

            Zune Pass fucking rules. I get everything from there.
            Also, the Zune HD fucking destroys an iPod Touch when it comes to a quality music experience. Every review on the face of the planet will tell you that.

    • boazhimself

      this guy knows whats up.

    • cougar party

      This. The fact that I cannot “take it with me” aka ipod is a deal breaker for me. I hardly listen to streaming audio unless I am fucking off at work or want to check out a new song being streamed.

      • http://www.coreymitchell.com Corey Mitchell

        But you can with the Premium service. I have it on my ipod, iphone, and laptop, as well as all of my computers at home.

        • cougar party

          Oh really? I will definitely have to check that out.

          • http://www.coreymitchell.com Corey Mitchell

            cp, I am wrong about one thing. I am not able to download to my iPod. Only songs that are already on my computer. All of the Spotify playlists can be listened to on my iPhone, which is what I use these days instead of my iPod. Sorry for any confusion.

          • Nick

            You can, just make your playlists/songs available in offline mode. Spotify will then download them, this will take a LONG time if you don’t have acess to a wifi net/hotspot. After that is done go offline and use them without streaming.

  • http://www.nylithia.com Dental Damnation

    Spotify isn’t large enough yet, you still can’t get it in Canada as far as I know. CM is getting cold feet because they want to make sure they don’t dump all their eggs in that basket before it hits iTunes level status…

    I bet they’re developing their own exclusive streaming site because they have 100 + artists. They could easily generate enough online traffic to make it worth it.

    • stu1

      The exclusive streaming really doesn’t make sense. It’s not exposing yourself to fans of other labels/band.

  • http://www.coreymitchell.com Corey Mitchell

    Consider Century Media “pinged” Vince. Love Spotify and have listened to more music in the past few weeks than I ever could have imagined. And I was already listening to 60+ metal releases a month for my Bleeders’ Digest columns.

    • Obey the Badger

      This.

    • Nonsensei

      +1

  • d.o.g.o.b.g.y.n.

    “Do what you can to get Century back on Spotify”

    I’d rather do what I can to get Nevermore on my Creative Zen Vision:M.

  • Matt

    Bandcamp of gtfo

    • Alex

      +1

  • Kye

    I’m not the biggest supporter of Spotify, though I do see its uses. I’ve been using the Premium service for a bit now, and it doesn’t seem to provide me, personally, with anything over an iPod. However, that’s how it applies to me. There’s a wealth of people out there that will eventually replace their music collection with Spotify, and even if I don’t support it (in fact, I’m adamantly against it), it’s an idiotic move to jump ship.

    A service like this could really help give more underground music a boost, but in order for the more obscure labels to hop on this, labels like Century Media first need to show that less mainstream music can find success on a service like this. They need to find a way to make it profitable to appeal to the hardcore, collector audiophiles like myself, as well as the less extreme mass market.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Skylar-Strange/1095951788 Skylar Strange

    I’m really diggin’ Spotify, and do see it as a step forward in the industry. Personally, I can’t wait to get an iPhone down the road so I can use Spotify, as well as have all the music not on there loaded into iTunes. Spotify has definitely helped in discovered tons of great music lately, and hopefully Century Media jumps back on board.

  • Charlie Brown

    I agree with this post and spotify is awesome if you don’t like it youre a dummy yada yada yada. BUT i think they are back on. I don’t have a running database in my head concerning which bands are on century media but strapping young lad had several releases on CM. They were down last week but since this weekend they are all back up and even more are now on spotify then they were before…. sooooooo…. ya.

    I’m not going to waste my time researching but devin townsend and SYL(minus 1 or 2 albums) is all back on there so I’m assuming the rest of their stuff is as well? Feel free to insult if wrong.

    • OLD

      Well, I noticed today that “Paradise Lost” from Symphony X was gone, and that was there last week. Yes, I listen to Symphony X guilt-free from time to time, heh.

      • Charlie Brown

        no guilt needed brah. if you think it rocks it rocks. besides a prog fan is a friend of mine. And ya like I said i haven’t researched it at all but based on that it seems like they may be back on board.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Skylar-Strange/1095951788 Skylar Strange

      I see some Nevermore up there too now. Woot.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Burton/784250631 Dan Burton

    Dammit, that means I have to rip all of my Century Media CDs so my playlists don’t have massive gaps in.

  • blah

    good move CM, much better to drive people to downloading your music for free the old fashioned way where you are completely in the dark, than having them listen for free in a controlled enviroment where at least you can generate some data (not valuable AT ALL) and minimal compensation (who would rather some than none? CRAZY TALK)

  • Brian

    Spotify has been in the US for what? A month? If CM wants to try to hold out for a month or two so they can get more money, then I don’t think they are gonna lose a whole there. If they don’t join back up, yeah, that would be a dumb move. But for now, I think CM can “afford” it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Colin-Pate/137000455 Colin Pate

    MS, thanks for turning me onto Spotify!! Paying 5 bucks a month and have been listening to everything from classic Iron Maiden to Katy Perry!! Very satisfied, for sure. Too bad about CM, they’ll figure it out eventually I’m sure.

  • OBEY1019

    I like MOG way better, Spotify is kind of lame not as good of a catalog and harder to use in my opinion.

  • Wil

    Meh, last good CM bands were Turmoil and Only Living Witness anyway.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Sean-Heron/9391234 Ryan Sean Heron

    ya know what kicks the shit outta spotify that I’ve already had for years? , the pirate bay

    • Memememe

      Torrents/Bandcamp/Pandora. Pretty much right?

  • obc

    it is a bitch CM pulled their artists for now… and Spotify’s metal could be a little more filled out. i listen to a lot of smaller doom and black bands that are not represented yet, but at least i own enough of the disks that i can just burn them to the hard drive of any device outside my primary pc that i might want to listen to them on.

    the value in Spotify for me has been as a music fan in general, rather than obscure stuff. although kudos to small labels like Russia’s Solitude Productions for putting stuff up there, will make it a lot easier to draw people in.

    almost anything i get a wild hair about checking out… boom. Al Di Meola, Miles Davis, Django, Thelonious, old 80′s Wave that i used to listen to on the radio back in the day, the entire Mojo Nixon catalog… great way to investigate artists I wouldn’t really know where to check out at the local record store. or fill in gaps in my collection for artists with tons of releases.

    doesn’t work with my Cowon mp3 player, but it’s no big deal – tons of my spotify playlists are on my iPhone and just put the absent music i have physical copies of on the Cowon.

    i’m happy with the $10/month investment.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Voynar/1695051874 Jonathan Voynar

    I’ve been using Spotify for a few weeks and mostly love it.

    Only a few problems I personally have with it…

    1. It’s not all 320k if you pay for it. Supposedly a third of it is, and I doubt that Spotify gives two shits about metal.

    2. Cell phone providers are still retarded and charging way too much for data. I used nearly all of my alloted 2gb in a week by using Spotify on my phone at work. Until AT&T gets with the fucking program I can’t afford to use it.

    If you have wi-fi to stream it off of, by all means use it. It’s great.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Voynar/1695051874 Jonathan Voynar

      Side rant: why are phone companies selling us these amazing phones that can do nearly anything but limiting our data so much without us paying through the teeth?

  • Christastrophe

    You don’t have to use your data. You can sync your playlists onto your phone for offline play. That what I do and it works great!

  • Curmudgeon

    I’m sure Spotify is pretty nice but I’m pretty set with Pandora and Bandcamp

  • cdee

    For anyone in canada complaining they can’t get spotify, Im in Canada and accidently found in the Android market an app called Rdio. It sounds the same as Spotif as you can stream at home and over the phone and download via wifi. I tried the 7 day trial and signed up as soon as the trial was over and it’s only 10 bucks a month. Has some holes in it (no Metal Blade bands for one)but I’ve been able to find about 70% of what I want and the 30% I can’t find is usally pretty obscure stuff. The other 30% I just pick up on
    emusic.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Wilton/1671083542 Chris Wilton

    Question: does this thing have obscure, out of print, limited run singles/eps/tour live vinyls/anything else I’d have to hunt through every record store on the east coast and check ebay every day to find? Because otherwise it’s pretty useless to me. i’d rather buy or download it online. Because then i’d actually have a copy of it.

    actually, a good way to make this thing worthwhile for someone like me would be to host things like rare or unique bootlegs that would never get a proper release.

    well, we’ll see how it ends up if it gets released in canada. not that it’ll mean much here.

  • The Flying Scotsman

    If they allowed you to do an initial search to check out their database/catalog to see if a good portion of what I’d be looking for was available, I’d consider it. Since they don’t want to share such info, no chance.

  • John

    Metalsucks Writes Blog Sucking Off Spotify; Sound Like Douchebags

  • Nutty McShithead
    • Nutty McShithead

      There’s room for you too Vince!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Brooks/763138632 Chris Brooks

    It’s their business. They can run it how they want. I don’t see how your opinion matters any.

  • Death metal

    You might not advocate stealing. But you advocate accepting and a adapting to
    a new situation created solely by thieves. You even scold anyone who will not
    let their actions be dictated by these thieves.

    No one has gone to Spotify with a smile on their face and no one would have gone there
    if it was not for theft. You mention this yourself -
    “(by the way: by pulling out of Spotify you are actually incentivizing people to steal!)”
    Basically everybody on spotify is there with a gun at their heads, and though
    it’s not spotify themselves holding the gun, the threat of theft
    is still not a legitimate market perimeter, that one must accept.

    That’s why your arts and crafts example is wrong. The relevant one would be:
    A craftsman creates a project and wants to sell it for 10$. What you calll a
    fan/buyer/consumer (and I call a thief) comes by and says that he wants the
    project for 0$. The seller doesn’t agree so they could go each their own way
    and all would be fair and square. No one would have anything so put on that.
    However the “buyer” doesn’t just leave. He steals the project.
    Furthermore this happens more and more and in the end someone offers the craftsman
    1 cent for his projects, and if he doesn’t accept, all the people around him,
    who should be backing up his right to be the master of his own products, tell
    him to go for it and get with the new market, or he’s an idiot.

    Remember that 90% of Spotifys users are free users and do not even want to
    pay that 1 dollar a month for music if they can get it free. Very few will
    pay for something they can simply steal – or thrugh theft force the creators
    to give away.

    You call yourself liberal. But this must have nothing to do with classical
    liberalism, where one of the most central point of this is that each man owns
    the fruit of his own labour.

    This means that the seller may set any price he damn well chooses.
    If the buyer doesn’t agree, he can refuse to buy. That is totally fair
    and in the spirit of liberalism. However the “buyer” cannot choose to steal
    if he doesn’t agree with the price. That is not a legitimate market factor,
    and I don’t know of any ideology idiotic enough to defend such a view.

    “Sell your product dirt cheap or people won’t buy it” and “sell your product
    dirt cheap or people will steal it” are night and day. One is legitimate and fair
    the other is, if not advocating crime, then accepting it and urging others to do the same.
    The first is in tune with liberalism the second is an absurd parody of anarchy or something.

    Everyone has the right to sell and market their product in the way they want.
    And they never entitle theft by doing it. Especially in the face of crime it is
    commendable to fight, and not just “go with the flow”. The same I would say of
    for example rising dictatorships.
    In even the odds are seeminglingly impossible – Fight the fuckers!

    I really hope that labels will go more into the business of sueing
    the thieves and give them what’s coming to them. There must be money
    to get there, and if the labels and bands start getting their rightful money again,
    Spotify will die.

    I hail those who still fight for their right and do no bow to crime, no matter
    how bad the odds may be.
    I spit on the spineless who scold others for not all having their heads bowed.

     

  • Death metal

    (What the hell, I’ll post it here too)

    You might not advocate stealing. But you advocate accepting and a adapting to
    a new situation created solely by thieves. You even scold anyone who will not
    let their actions be dictated by these thieves.

    No one has gone to Spotify with a smile on their face and no one would have gone there
    if it was not for theft. You mention this yourself -
    “(by the way: by pulling out of Spotify you are actually incentivizing people to steal!)”
    Basically everybody on spotify is there with a gun at their heads, and though
    it’s not spotify themselves holding the gun, the threat of theft
    is still not a legitimate market perimeter, that one must accept.

    That’s why your arts and crafts example is wrong. The relevant one would be:
    A craftsman creates a project and wants to sell it for 10$. What you calll a
    fan/buyer/consumer (and I call a thief) comes by and says that he wants the
    project for 0$. The seller doesn’t agree so they could go each their own way
    and all would be fair and square. No one would have anything so put on that.
    However the “buyer” doesn’t just leave. He steals the project.
    Furthermore this happens more and more and in the end someone offers the craftsman
    1 cent for his projects, and if he doesn’t accept, all the people around him,
    who should be backing up his right to be the master of his own products, tell
    him to go for it and get with the new market, or he’s an idiot.

    Remember that 90% of Spotifys users are free users and do not even want to
    pay that 1 dollar a month for music if they can get it free. Very few will
    pay for something they can simply steal – or thrugh theft force the creators
    to give away.

    You call yourself liberal. But this must have nothing to do with classical
    liberalism, where one of the most central point of this is that each man owns
    the fruit of his own labour.

    This means that the seller may set any price he damn well chooses.
    If the buyer doesn’t agree, he can refuse to buy. That is totally fair
    and in the spirit of liberalism. However the “buyer” cannot choose to steal
    if he doesn’t agree with the price. That is not a legitimate market factor,
    and I don’t know of any ideology idiotic enough to defend such a view.

    “Sell your product dirt cheap or people won’t buy it” and “sell your product
    dirt cheap or people will steal it” are night and day. One is legitimate and fair
    the other is, if not advocating crime, then accepting it and urging others to do the same.
    The first is in tune with liberalism the second is an absurd parody of anarchy or something.

    Everyone has the right to sell and market their product in the way they want.
    And they never entitle theft by doing it. Especially in the face of crime it is
    commendable to fight, and not just “go with the flow”. The same I would say of
    for example rising dictatorships.
    In even the odds are seeminglingly impossible – Fight the fuckers!

    I really hope that labels will go more into the business of sueing
    the thieves and give them what’s coming to them. There must be money
    to get there, and if the labels and bands start getting their rightful money again,
    Spotify will die.

    I hail those who still fight for their right and do no bow to crime, no matter
    how bad the odds may be.
    I spit on the spineless who scold others for not all having their heads bowed.