Stations by Spotify

This concept is a lot of "ehh." A lot of it is Spotify flexing their brand power before IPO (not uncommon), but I *still* think it distracts from two major things: 1. Their actual business model & strategies which still leave a lot of fundamental questions unanswered, and 2. Other areas of the music business (outside streaming) which they are pretty much ignoring (to their own disadvantage imo) Actually, one could argue that this is Spotify drawing attention to one of the major flaws in its own system: that its hyper-curative approach is great for recommendations, but crap for serendipity. While they currently win in the curation game, they fall far short in the pleasurable serendipity that characterizes the radio format. Things go in cycles, and it seems that we're at the end of the hyper-curation cycle, and moving back towards a preferred focus on serendipity (not unsurprising, given how curated our music tastes and "discovery" have become). We'll see how it rolls out, but this initial release and fanfare (or lack thereof) leaves me fairly underwhelmed by the overall concept right this moment.

Only available in Australia :-/

Stop with the teasing, Spotify.

Pros:

Potentially cool

Cons:

Region-locked and Android-only.

Can't wait for this on iOS. I think it will help my dad make the switch from Pandora to Spotify. Something for that smaller, underserved by big streaming platforms, audience.

I think this is actually a pretty smart experiment to run. It will answer questions about user behavior, potential growth strategy options, lateral expansion potential, and it rounds out the experience from a user perspective... I would totally use it if it were available in Canada.

Basically a standalone app for the Daily Mixes?

To save other people from making the same mistake I did: it is not available in the USA.