The Atlantic is a pretty reputable source. And I think there’s a difference between subscribing to news for news reporting like the New York Times, The Guardian, etc, vs subscribing to magazine like the Atlantic, New Yorker, or New Republic that will give you more political commentary and analysis. Both have a role to play and both need subscribers. I subscribe to the Atlantic on and off (I’ve kind of rotated between the atlantic, new republic, and the nation over time). Primary subscriptions for my household are the New York Times and New Yorker. Then I have my annual membership/donations for NPR and PBS. Gotta support the news and good political commentary. It’s holiday season soon. Subscriptions make good holiday gifts.

That’s because there was a time when everyone had print subscriptions that were healthy, and the internet just gave them extra money for ads. When you start losing subscribers because everyone is looking at your shit online for free, you learn you need to charge for it.

A once a month pop up for a new album release is milking you? I don’t see this as any different than the inserts from CDs and Vinyl that listed other items available to purchase. You just take them out and throw them away.

That’s annoying. But I think there’s a misconception of “if you pay for something it must be ad free.” There’s goals to get to X revenue. It’s totally reasonable to have that way to get to X to be a blend of subscription fees and some forms of promotional content. Also, I am curious if the record labels have any agreements in place that require Spotify to do occasional promotions to both premium and non premium users in order for the service to have access to their music. I’d be curious to see what the “why am I seeing this?” link says.