LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
According to Alex Tacoma (27) writing a best selling novel isn’t always easy, especially when the cafe whose free wifi she chooses to use play Spotify with the ads on.
“This place has a great vibe but honestly, how hard is it to pay $12 a month to get rid of the Spotify ads! I’m trying to use your internet here for fuck’s sake!”
The streaming giant Spotify offers an enormous catalogue of music to users free of charge, with the addition of what CSIRO has proved to be deliberately annoying and disruptive ads every three songs, convincing many users to purchase the paid version.
As a freelance copywriter, Tacoma enjoys the freedom of being able to plug in her laptop at a local cafe, as an opportunity to get out of the house and not exceed her home download limit.
“It’s also a much more inspirational place for me to work on my novel once I’m done with work stuff. At least it would be if I didn’t have to hear those bloody ads all the time!”
Upon deciding she wanted to write the great Australian novel, Tacoma has since spent a much larger portion of her time frequenting the Chipped Cup Cafe, where she soldiers on through the irritating adverts hopeful someone will ask her what she’s working on”
“Maybe they could pass the savings onto us because the price of cold drip still seems a bit steep if I have to listen to the ads. I’m a creative I need caffeine! I was up all night writing and browsing a bit on Reddit you know.”
“Whenever one of those ads comes on I’m immediately knocked out of my creative space and struggle to determine character motivation or remember the name of the film I wanted to download.”
While the ads are annoying Tacoma says the charm, coffee and fact that they are the only cafe near her with free wifi has lead her to make a decision he is ultimately unhappy with.
“Gonna have to start wearing headphones. I’ve got Spotify Premium on my laptop so it makes sense. Still shouldn’t have to though, load of crap.”
