this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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I don't mind paying $10/mo for access to millions of songs on demand, even if the caveat is that I don't own anything at the end of my subscription.
I understand costs have gone up, so I can accept a $1 increase in subscription. The problem is that Spotify wants to do a bunch of side projects at my expense. I have no interest in podcasts or audiobooks yet I must fork up the extra money to fund it. I have no say in what my money is being used for and I hate that.
It's why I moved from it to Tidal and then to Apple Music (even though I'm on Android). Both have their own issues but at least they're focused on music.
The problem is that Spotify is losing money each year. They aren't profitable. And if they are keep focusing on music, they never will. Their deal with the music labels says that they need to give 70 % of each subscription to the music labels. So by getting more people to signup, they only marginally increase their revenue. Same goes for raising their prices.
Thats why they tried focusing on Podcasts and Audiobooks. Those are a lot more profitable, either by adding ads (Podcasts) or by charging a premium (audiobooks).
It's amazing to think how incompetent their management must be that they're charging more, delivering lower audio quality, and paying less to artists than competitors like Tidal, yet still aren't profitable.
They pay less than Tidal claims it pays. So far Tidal has a really bad history of publishing correct numbers.
There is an episode of Tech Won't Save Us (2024-01-25) discussing how weird the podcasting play was for Spotify. There is essentially no way to monetize podcasts at scale, primarily because podcasts do not have the same degree of platform look-in as other media types.
Spotify spent the $100 million (or whatever the number was) to get Rogan exclusive, but for essentially every other podcast you can find a free RSS feed with skippable ads. Also their podcast player just outright sucks :/
Hang on. 70% of the subscription before any royalty / streaming costs?
So in a $10 payment, $7 is immediately removed, then another say $1 for streaming costs leaving only $2 for profits which Spotify takes 30%?
From each $10 only $1.40 goes to artists?
From the 10 Dollar, taxes will be deducted. Afterwards Apple or Google take their share (if you subscribe using the App). Of the remaining money the Music labels take 70 %, and Spotify keeps 30 %. The music labels pay a fraction of the 70 % to the artists, depending on the contract and the artist's share of streams reported by Spotify.
Interesting. I wasn’t aware that they weren’t profitable.
Funny enough, right after your comment I got recommended this video on YouTube talking about the points you mentioned: https://youtu.be/yDWgOwb8kj4
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Hope you like Joe Rogan and the crap he peddles because he is getting a nice chunk of Spotify money... I left because of that particular deal
Any particular reason you went from Tidal to Apple Music? I see a lot of people here recommending it, so I'd be interested to hear any negatives it has.
The simple reason is because I got a lengthy free trial for it (saving me money on the Tidal sub) and then stuck around.
Apple Music was hot garbage when I started using it but over the months of my trial it improved tremendously - to a point where there isn't much difference between it and Tidal. App performance is good now, it provides song recommendations for your playlists, many bugs I was facing have been fixed.
The Android Auto experience is better for me compared to Tidal, it has Shazam integration (Spotify does too, Tidal doesn't) and it has many of the Japanese city pop songs I like that Tidal was missing.
I can always jump ship if needed. Services like Soundiiz and TuneMyMusic make it pretty easy.
I don't mind paying $0/mo for access to millions of songs with limited skipping and occasional adverts. ,