Thread

Kids turned low-traffic NPR Spotify comments into a secret group chat

484 points · 257 comments · simonpure

bullfightonmars · 1790613267 · focus · HN ↗
I was surprised last week to find that Spotify has turned in to full on social media/youtube now.
I left Spotify off of screentime limits for my son so that he could listen to music or books at bedtime, and found him watching "podcasts" which have full youtube style pages with videos and comments.
1. nicce · 1790614352 · focus · HN ↗
  Nobody stops to think "why not" when it is so easy to add certain features to software these days. But everyone wants to capture peoples attention and adding messaging is one way to do it.
  1. Lagoon3384_SWE · 1790616875 · focus · HN ↗
    Spotify had Podcasts before they got Audiobooks in.
    nicce · 1790616960 · focus · HN ↗
    Comments are two years old, however.
2. Lutzb · 1790616827 · focus · HN ↗
  This was/is a long standing feature request to block podcasts and video podcasts completely. Even worse two years ago unrated podcasts were available to kids. Not quoting the stuff I could find there. Highly unsuitable to kids.
  1. Qazpqaz · 1790663938 · focus · HN ↗
    You can turn off videos for your own account and likewise for your childs account.
3. Lagoon3384_SWE · 1790616871 · focus · HN ↗
  Spotify had Podcasts before they got Audiobooks in.
4. jahnu · 1790621958 · focus · HN ↗
  Zawinski's Law* except now it’s a social media messaging app.
  “Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail.”
  1. morkalork · 1790623262 · focus · HN ↗
    What's the meme about Google products and chat features?
    jwstillwater · 1790656717 · focus · HN ↗
    He’s never coming over Dario!
    Callback to a post yesterday [1] regarding Google attempting to siphon a little heart-to-heart from a user’s search query. I actually think this is a fitting next-iteration of Doctorow’s term- even though the two cases here are entirely parallel, it does capture the general feeling of being chased all over the web and across multiple apps in attempt to just be a human capable of making decisions!
    <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870367">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870367
5. adzm · 1790629090 · focus · HN ↗
  I actually love SoundCloud's timestamp based comments. It is pretty fun seeing someone's joyful reactions to a nice drop, beautiful vocals coming in, a brilliant lyrical phrase, etc. It's disappointing that this is not the primary mode of commenting on Spotify.
6. alphager · 1790640893 · focus · HN ↗
  FYI: you can turn off video content in the family account settings (not the parental settings).

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