Today's Uber Story

My driver subscribed to Spotify Premium.

I read in "Consumer Reports" that my car was recalled. Well, kinda. If you live in the southeastern part of the country the moisture might lead the Takata airbag to explode upon collision, causing shrapnel to fly through the interior, killing a couple of people already, and being the paranoid guy I am I wanted it fixed.

But I live in Los Angeles.

But my car came from Florida. It sat on the lot there for the better part of a year. The land of humidity, which causes the problem.

Actually, just the other day they decided to recall my car for the entire United States. But I hopped on the phone early and got them to agree to replace the inflator, after I scanned and sent the original sticker with the Florida location.

But my car is a Saab and Saab is out of business.

But it's not really a Saab, but a Subaru.

But GM's got to fix it. Which means it's like bringing your Mercedes to the Hyundai dealership. My natural anxiety is sky high. Live long enough and your car is misrepaired many times.

Took months for the part to come in, but today was the day. So I sauntered on over to the dealership, actually, I endured hellish traffic, you really can't drive in L.A. anymore, and after dropping off my vehicle I pulled up the app for UberX.

I don't see how taxis survive. How could an entire industry be asleep?

Well, we saw that with Napster and the record companies. How could someone not want a CD? How could someone not want a dirty taxicab?

So you can see your car around the corner on the app and it comes to pick you up and the driver calls you by name and first and foremost you're worried about your rating.

Did you read that Maureen Dowd column? You should. You see she was in L.A. and Uber wouldn't pick her up, not soon anyway, even though cars were swarming around her hotel. And when she finally got inside she found out why. SHE HAD A POOR RATING! For not showing up when she should. She didn't respect the Uber drivers and as a result they didn't respect her. Time is literally money. Be ready when they arrive.

Now Maureen ultimately made a good point, are we going to be rated in every facet of life? Is this what the world has come to? But the point of my story is that when the Ford Fiesta picked me up I greeted Oscar by name and started a conversation, because I wanted a rating of five.

And we discussed the history of his driving and how to get to my house and after a moment of silence, wondering whether it was good or bad to keep talking, I noticed he was listening to KRTH.

That's the oldies station in case you don't know.

"You like the oldies?"

YES. I HATE THE BOOM BOOM, THAT'S NOT MUSIC!

And this guy was just around thirty.

Whew!

And as KC and the Sunshine Band started streaming out of the speakers Oscar began talking about the music business, about compensation, and that's when he started talking about Spotify.

"You use Spotify?"

YES.

"Free or Premium?"

PREMIUM!

He got the app. That's where it starts. He didn't even use the desktop version until after he subscribed. And he wanted to listen to Pink Floyd's "The Wall." But on the free version of the mobile app you can't pick and choose what you want to hear, it's like Pandora, jumping around the tracks. And this frustrated Oscar so much that he paid. 99 cents for three months.

"Are you gonna pay the ten bucks a month for Premium after your trial runs out?"

OF COURSE!

He can't live without it.

Now I'm not saying this is scientific research, it's purely anecdotal. But the foregoing is exactly what Daniel Ek is saying, that free mobile leads to paying customers.

But you don't want to hear that.

"Driving Uber Mad": http://nyti.ms/1ceAnFD


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --