The Ledger

Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.

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why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable

Opinion
Horowitz: Apple aggressively abuses smartphone monopoly with 30% App Store fee
“I think that's happened on the smartphone now. You know, particularly with Apple, I think the kind of the Epic case and the Spotify cases are really great examples of that where, you know, I am fielding, you know, a product that's competitive with Spotify and …”
Ben Horowitz Apr 2, 2024 ▶ 24:49 Politics & the Future of Tech
Assertion Partly supported
Dixon: Major developers like Spotify refused to build for Apple Vision Pro
“No one, none of the major apps would build in the, in For Vision Pro because they're, you know, the Spotify's of the world because they'd been so screwed over.”
Chris Dixon Feb 28, 2024 ▶ 27:04 Future of Crypto, Blockchain & Web3 w/ Chris Dixon
Insight
Piff Marti: Streaming platforms dilute music quality by demanding constant content
“And the goal of all of these platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, Spotify Apple Music, is to have users use their app as long as possible. And what they encourage the creators to do is give them a bunch of things that these users can consume. But because of that…”
Piff Marti Jun 13, 2023 ▶ 54:53 Evolve or Die: The Future of the Creative Process, Artist Authenticity, and the Value of the Music
What-if
McCullough: Spotify-style music streaming could have existed as early as 1999
“You could have had a Spotify in 1999 or 2000 at the very least.”
Brian McCullough Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 15:25 a16z Podcast | How the Internet Happened
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Shakil Khan: TransferWise Could Exceed Spotify and Skype in Scale
“TransferWise is doing an amazing job, and I hope this goes down as, you know, one of the biggest companies ever to come out of Europe, up there with Spotify and Skype, or bigger than even those companies.”
Shaq (Shakil Khan) Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 33:21 a16z Podcast | Scaling Ideas and Startups in the U.K. and Europe
Opinion
Walden: Blockchain projects should not compete directly with Spotify
“I wouldn't encourage, you know, blockchain projects that want to go and compete with Spotify directly, but there's this new territory that's opened up to figure out new sort of modes of creative expression that benefit from these properties, and hopefully we'l…”
Jesse Walden Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 27:41 a16z Podcast | Crypto And The Evolution Of Open Source
Insight
Khan: Small-market European startups succeed by designing globally from day one
“Take a market like Sweden, the reason why Spotify partly has been successful was, from day one, the product was built to go global. The same thing with Skype, transfer-wise, a building for a global audience, because The local population is far too small to be …”
Shaq (Shakil Khan) Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 8:30 a16z Podcast | Scaling Ideas and Startups in the U.K. and Europe
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Babayan: Europe has major tech successes, but post-exit mafias remain underdeveloped
“Well, I mean, I think the list is pretty long of, you know, Spotify and Skype, and I mean, there's, yeah, there's a whole bunch of success stories. I think what probably hasn't happened yet is you don't have the mafias that have followed those yet necessarily.”
Nick Babayan Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:01 a16z Podcast | Building Tech Startups in a Place Where Tech Isn’t Everything
Insight
Spotify can unlock revenue by helping artists plan concert tours
“You see, actually, Spotify could use that data and help artists and concert promoters figure out which cities they should be touring in. They should use data to inform themselves. Should I spend one more night in New York, or should I use that day instead at t…”
Connie Chan Jan 23, 2020 ▶ 5:38 Four Trends in Consumer Tech
Insight
Podcast data gives streaming platforms deep lifestyle insights into users
“With their addition of podcasts, they now know much more about me. If I listen to the BiggerPockets podcast, they know I'm most likely a landlord and I love real estate.”
Connie Chan Jan 23, 2020 ▶ 5:23 Four Trends in Consumer Tech
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Garg: Gobble aims to create a Spotify-like personalized taste map for meals
“Long term, we think about what is best for you to eat based on your genetics, your age, your background, your taste preferences, and we try to personalize food in the same way that Spotify has developed a fingerprint for music. We want to own that fingerprint …”
Ushma Garg Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 8:44 a16z Podcast | Reinventing Food
Assertion Supported
Thompson: Discover Weekly engagement dropped when Spotify removed familiar songs
“Spotify, when they were initially designing their incredible program, Discover Weekly, they initially wanted it to be entirely new songs. But a bug in the algorithm accidentally let through some familiar songs as they were testing internally. So they fixed the…”
Derek Thompson Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 25:44 a16z Podcast | Addiction vs Popularity in the Age of Virality
Disclosure
Shakil Khan invested half his net worth into Spotify before product launched
“Ended up meeting Daniel Ek when he was 22 years old with an idea of Spotify, and I put half of my net worth into the company before there was a product.”
Shaq (Shakil Khan) Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 16:27 a16z Podcast | Scaling Ideas and Startups in the U.K. and Europe
Assertion Partly supported
Chan: Spotify gets over 90% of its revenue from subscriptions
“Or take a look at Spotify, over 90% of their revenue comes from subscriptions.”
Connie Chan Dec 5, 2018 ▶ 2:24 When Advertising Isn't Enough
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