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Spotify is raising the cost of Premium subscriptions, again (www.engadget.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

323 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Spotify is officially raising its Premium subscription rates in the US come July, following reports of the move in April. The platform is increasing its Individual plan from $11 to $12 monthly and its Duo plan from $15 to $17 monthly — the same jump as last year's $1 and $2 price hikes, respectively. However, its Family plan is going up by a whopping $3, increasing from $17 to $20 monthly. The only subscribers getting a break are students, who will continue to pay $6 monthly.

Spotify announced the price hikes less than a year after its previous one last July. Before that, Spotify hadn't raised its fees since launching a decade and a half ago. I guess it was too optimistic to hope the next increase would also take that long, especially with Spotify's continued focus (and money dump) on audiobooks.

Premium subscribers should receive an email from Spotify in the next month detailing the price hike and providing a link to cancel their plan if they would prefer to do so. Users currently on a trial period for Spotify will get one month at $11 after it ends before being moved up to a $12 monthly fee.

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[–] [email protected] 158 points 5 months ago (4 children)

[–] [email protected] 110 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I'm all for pirating, but tbh music streaming apps are a service that is still in the "worth it" range. Not where Spotify is going, but, maintaining a library of high quality music with all the assets, and serving it to all your devices over the Internet is not a small feat to do securely.

I'll probably switch to tidal for now while I start building up my library to include stuff beyond what I like...

[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 months ago (7 children)

You should check out Plexamp while you bridge the gap. It has tidal support built in, and you can self-host your own collection as you build it up. Then when you’re done with tidal, you don’t have to learn or download a new app.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Plexamp, Lidarr, Lidarr extended, Tailscale. Done.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Done. Until it can’t find a decent quality option for an album you’re searching for.

A guy I know decided to move away from Spotify and pirate music. The amount of effort he went through means it’s something I’ll probably never try.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 5 months ago (14 children)

As someone else said: it doesn't replace streaming even a little. Pirating is replacing buying music directly. Streaming facilitates finding new music and trying it out. Being able to listen to anything at any time. You simply can't do that with downloads; no one can download everything. Piracy in this case really just works for people still listening to their highschool favs and not people looking for new stuff all the time.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

I used to download exclusively when I was younger, but as I get older I’m trying out new genres from different cultures than my own and I’d miss out on it all without a streaming service.

In my opinion it’s worth it.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

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).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 5 months ago (12 children)

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (4 children)

More money More crap nobody wants like audio books Still haven’t seen cd quality streaming yet

I used to happy with Spotify before the enshitificatuon happened…

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What annoys me is you still have to pay for audio books.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

About 10 years ago I got rid of most of my cd's because I thought I would just use spotify. Now I'm slowly gathering a cd collection again from thriftstores (or buy albums in store if it's newer music and I want to support the artist). I rip them all to flac and add them to my Plex.

I've noticed I listen to music more now. I find new cool songs by artists by listening through whole albums again. Because of the time commitment of ripping and physically flipping through cd's, I actually care again about the music that I gather and listen.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 months ago (13 children)

How does this compare to other music streaming services these days?

[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Tidal is $11/mo for an individual and $17 for a 6 person family plan. I recently switched because they supposedly give a better cut to artists and serve flac files.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Yeah. Never thought I'd see the day when Tidal was cheaper than crappy Spotify.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Apple Music only raised the price by $1 since the launch in 2015 (9 years ago). But they added cool features like lossless audio quality and Dolby Atmos. They also had lyrics like 6 years before Spotify added them. I think you can even get it for $6 dollars if you're a student.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (4 children)

They also payout about 2.5X what Spotify does to artists.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Well considering the last price hike got us gems like the music 8-ball/magic crystal thing, I can barely wait to see what banger they'll come up with to bloat my music player with next.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Their CEO just boasted about how making content for their platform comes with zero cost for the creators. So, why are they raising rates? Is the whole "you pay to support the creators" trope a lie? I am confused.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (15 children)

Just a reminder that the Tidal family account at the maximum subscription "grade" costs €16.

So you and 4x buddies can get very high quality audio for €3.20/mth.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ahoy!

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I'm all for going sailing but if there are features you want that that can't quite replicate, it's also a great time to look at a VPN service with a server in Turkey... Sign up on a Turkish IP and the exchange rate puts you under $2/month USD. This works for a lot of other things too.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Still happily buying music on Bandcamp. Their discovery stuff is pretty good, too.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (20 children)

I was a Google Play Music person and loved it, and then they changed to YouTube. I got mad and tried Apple Music, but as a classical music lover it's vastly less than ideal for several reasons, so I went to Spotify and realized they liked to shuffle Britney Spears into me listening to lieder, so I went back to YouTube because at least they didn't do that. But it's just so basic compared to the absolute perfection that was GPM, and difficult to navigate. I don't know where to go next. I've been buying records on Bandcamp but I also like the streaming service to discover music with.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (9 children)

Bookmarking this page so I can learn modern sailing techniques. Audiophiles who sail the seven seas, please teach me your ways! My most hasn't hit the surf in a hot minute.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (2 children)

For anyone who hasn't checked their Spotify subscription for a while, I recently discovered a new basic tier created underneath the premium one that is a little cheaper simply by not including the 'free' 15 hours of audiobooks. I've never used it and don't intend to. YMMV.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

Just canceled my family plan. I like Apple Music more anyways.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Who else is still using YouTube Music ReVanced?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I gotta start direct downloading my music again soon. Spotify has just left me feeling so frustrated lately.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

Im just happy my cracked apk somehow still works. Lol

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

It's a good thing we haven't risen Wages between last Price Hike and this Price Hike. Otherwise Spotify might be forced to Raise Their Prices!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I'm sure this is the last time. 😉

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I wish we could offload podcasts and audio books. I have zero interest in them, or paying for them.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

And fucking Joe asshole Rogan. We're paying for his Neanderthal 150 million contract.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Quality isn't good enough to justify the price. Apple Music and Tidal have better quality of sound.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If your library supports it, there's Freegal music. It's the library version of Spotify.

https://freegalmusic.com

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (10 children)

Got the email of subscription increase, just cancelled.

Been trialling Tidal and we're both pretty happy with it. Integrates almost as well as Spotify with Android Auto and the sound quality is far better.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Prices will continue to go up until the number of subscribers lost due to the price increase outweighs the additional profit from the subscribers who agree to pay the higher amount.

Capitalism machine goes brrrrrrr

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Obligatory Fuck Spotify comment.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

If switching services, this web service that moves your music between streaming services worked well for me. Paid $5 for one month then canceled https://soundiiz.com/

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