Author Archives: ChrisStoneman

Farewell

This is my last post on Words About Music, though I will be starting afresh at chrisstoneman.com/blog. It’s been over 2 years since my last post, written to further my thinking on the problems facing Spotify. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to make these musings a full-​​​​time hobby, and work on some solutions too. […]

Part 2 : How Spotify Can Embrace Active Sharing

In my previous post, I explained Why Spotify’s Social Strategy is Fundamentally Flawed. There’s an obvious distinction between Actively and Passively shared updates, and Spotify’s use of the latter has negatively affected both its growth and value. Facebook made the same mistake when games such as Zynga’s ‘Farmville’ encouraged passively shared updates. Feeds were filled with […]

Part 1 : Why Spotify’s Social Strategy is Fundamentally Flawed

Facebook and Spotify have often said that sharing is an inherent human trait. I disagree. Active vs Passive Sharing ACTIVE sharing, when we deliberately take time and effort to share what we like, is a human trait. It demands attention on both sides, and increases the content’s value. PASSIVE sharing, an automated feed of things […]

How Google Play can forge a new Music Industry

Rumours are that Google Play will soon launch outside the US. The music industry will be overjoyed to see a player of Google’s size enter the market, hoping they’ll sell music to a whole new demographic just as iTunes did a decade ago. However, this will be a different beast entirely, with new lessons to […]

Gotye - Making Mirrors

We live in a time when all history and culture has been placed online at our fingertips. It takes no effort, time or cash for everyone to be inspired by everything everywhere past or present. We as a society now digest popular culture just as a newborn baby digests the world around it; we constantly […]

Why Streaming Can Make Music Special Again

I often hear thoughts like.… “Yes music being everywhere is convenient, but it makes it less special. I don’t savour the act of buying or listening anymore. That trip to my local indie shop and placing the record on the turntable for the first time was SPECIAL. Streaming music never will be.” I beg to differ. […]

Gotye - State Of The Art

State Of The Art deserves to be the signature tune from Gotye’s recent album ‘Making Mirrors’, but for many it won’t be. It’s the artist and his album left to boil at a low heat for years, leaving the rich essence of a body of work sunmarised in 5 wonderful minutes of music. We begin with a […]