Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

Spotify is raising the cost of Premium subscriptions, again

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.

Drummyralf ,

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.

x0chi ,

There should be a app that worked with most music players and with the data suggest new things to try.
Something that worked with local players, streaming players, etc. Something like the concept of last.fm but with good suggestions.

I can't believe that these days we don't get one app like that.
Even streaming apps with all the data they got from listing hours and still fail around 40 to 60% with my suggestions, and rarely suggest something that I haven't heard before.

Nowadays with the state of efficient AI in learning from patterns, and still nothing mind-blowing like a kind of MiniMe that has almost the same tastes but have heard more stuff than you and can recommend as a more educated version of you.
That is something that I would want to, hell if it worked so well and to have it, I would have to pay , then I would pay up to a price.

Drummyralf ,

Although not tied to your collection, you might find Everynoise cool and interesting.

BigBrainBrett2517 ,

Holy crap, yes. This is amazing. Thank you.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Eh, I just switched to audiobooks. I get them from my library and listen while I drive, work in the yard, ride my bike, etc.

I'd really like a self-hosted smart speaker though that I could call out a song and it would play. So like Alexa, but all the AI is local. I'm willing to pay for the music service, but I need to own the platform and be able to change music services easily. The only time I really listen to music is when entertaining friends/family, and using my phone is getting old.

Wahots ,
@Wahots@pawb.social avatar

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

madcaesar ,

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

cyberpunk007 OP ,

I like them but not on my music service. It's in my way all the time. I have audible and I use a different app for podcasts. At least give me the option, but they won't because I'm sure they get an incentive.

Qwaffle_waffle ,

I use libby via local library for audiobooks.

return2ozma ,
@return2ozma@lemmy.world avatar

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

https://freegalmusic.com

BonesOfTheMoon ,

Nice!

Churbleyimyam ,

Cool. I trust that extra money will be going to the artists who upload their music!

Avatar_of_Self ,

Probably going to Joe Rogan's "over $200" million deal with Spotify instead.

sag , (edited )
@sag@lemm.ee avatar

Wow Anyway I use RiMusic

sunbytes ,

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.

Phegan ,

I tried tidal for a bit, but ran into a number of issues with the various privacy methods I used and the lack of a Linux native client made it difficult to justify staying.

I am currently running a navidrome server and supporting artists directly for their music where possible.

Duke_Nukem_1990 ,

I listen to a lot of smaller black metal bands. Can Tidal keep up?

sunbytes ,

Best way to find out is to search for all of them inside Tidal. I don't know if you need to make a free account or what to do it.

They usually have great black Friday deals though. I think I paid like €2/mth for my first year.

dependencyinjection ,

I switched to Tidal recently from AppleMusic and I like it.

It should be noted if you’re listening through Bluetooth like most people then you can’t get high quality.

Also, they allow you to copy your music from other services, using a third party service which was great. It does have a charge and annoyingly it is a recurring charge. So I signed up, transferred my music and then cancelled.

I then sent them a message to say it sucks that they don’t have a one of few for doing this. If you use it and agree I would send them a similar message so they get the idea that most people don’t need continuous syncing.

LodeMike ,

What the fuck kind of service is that? Aren't there free ones—there were the last time I checked.

dependencyinjection ,

Tune My Music.

To be honest I didn’t search for any, and just used where Tidal sent me. It was £3 to transfer it all.

LodeMike ,

Him. There's another one I don't remember its name.

TheOakTree ,

Soundiiz. I used it to transfer my playlists one by one, for free.

filcuk ,

The bluetooth remark is a bit misleading, there are codecs that provide better audio, which is even noticeable on Spotify.
If you have earphones that support LDAC for example (sony XMs are popular where I live), you can even use that with Windows via 3rd party software (search Win A2DP - not free, but can recommend).

dependencyinjection ,

Codecs for iOS and Android?

As I imagine that’s where the most people are streaming from.

filcuk ,

They're all proprietary, so it's less than ideal.
LDAC is owned by Sony and supported by some Androids.
Samsung has their own codec, Apple does too - each vendor locked.
Then there's Qualcomm's aptX/HD, which should now be fully supported by Android.

I don't use apple, so can't comment on other options there.

dependencyinjection ,

Thanks. That helps enough for me to search it not on Google

TheOakTree ,

FiiO BTR5 + LDAC + IEMs have been working super well for me. I don't really use wireless with Windows, but I'm considering payiny for A2DP regardless, as it worked very well and may come in handy eventually.

riodoro1 ,

I fucking hate what apple music has become. Their clients are a complete disaster. Im gradually switching to tidal and the only thing that pisses me off is an ad for waze that comes up while you’re driving which cannot be disabled.

dependencyinjection ,

Im torn as I listen to many genres and one of them being Classical Music. Apple having a dedicated app for that is a major plus, so I imagine I’ll be going back at some point. Although I do agree the regular music app is not great.

In fact I love using iPhone as I geek out with my job but I want my phone to be stress free, just I don’t use many Apple stock apps.

LainTrain ,

It's time to move away. Anyone know how to download the metadata of a playlist? That's the only thing keeping me subbed.

d3m0nr4v3r ,

Yes there are several solutions, just search for Spotify Playlist Backup/Export. There are free services as well as GitHub projects. You of course have to link your account with the free service.

BigMacHole ,

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!

USSEthernet ,

And I'm assuming they're not adding any benefits for the cost like more audio book hours on the family plan...

lazycouchpotato ,
@lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world avatar

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.

exanime ,

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

GenEcon , (edited )

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).

JohnEdwa ,
@JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz avatar

Spotify also has 236 million premium subscribers.
Let's assume everyone paying US prices and nobody decides to cancel because of this - both of which are false - that $1 increase would mean Spotify users pay 2.8 billion USD more per year and Spotify gets a cool 850 million.

lazycouchpotato ,
@lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world avatar

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

Spedwell ,

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 :/

kwirky ,

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.

GenEcon ,

They pay less than Tidal claims it pays. So far Tidal has a really bad history of publishing correct numbers.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In ,

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?

GenEcon ,

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.

Manalith ,

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.

lazycouchpotato ,
@lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In ,

I don't mind paying $0/mo for access to millions of songs with limited skipping and occasional adverts. ,

jpeps ,

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.

cyberpunk007 OP ,

Is the audio quality the same?

jpeps ,

Yeah! It's 'premium' in all ways except that audiobook offer. Prettttyyyy shitty behaviour from them.

ulkesh ,
@ulkesh@lemmy.world avatar

SpotX works quite well.

SpiceDealer ,
@SpiceDealer@lemmy.world avatar

UNDER JOLLY ROGER!

InternetUser2012 ,

People still use spotify? Huh, TIL.

kworpy ,
@kworpy@lemm.ee avatar

literally just get audio files of whatever you wanna listen to and plop it on funkwhale

douglasg14b ,
@douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

You.... Are kidding right?

You would have to be living under a proverbial rock to have no inkling that Spotify is a product still in use, or be willfully ignorant.

It's like saying:

  • People still use Google?
  • People still drive cars?
  • People still use Windows?
  • People still go to churches?

...etc

Not that I agree that we should use Spotify. But playing pretend that they are small, irrelevant, and have no effect on the industry they are in isn't doing us any favors when it comes to pushing back against it.

InternetUser2012 ,

You on their payroll? You sound like you're on their payroll. Everyone I know ditched that garbage years ago.

TheOakTree ,

Ah yes, you know so many people that it somehow becomes equivalent to a healthy sample size of the entire human population. Got it.

InternetUser2012 ,

You ok? You seem really triggered over this.

TheOakTree ,

Not at all! I had fun typing out the comment while considering the implications of your comment! :P

Thanks for the good time.

douglasg14b ,
@douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

Most people tend to be triggered by ignorance paraded as knowledge and petulant personal attacks due to an inability to engage like an adult.

To be fair.

douglasg14b ,
@douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

fails to see reality

Reality is shown to them

Doubles down on their ignorance of reality

This thread is a textbook example of:

Don't argue with morons. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Instead of actually arguing the topic at hand you are trying to drag all repliers down to your level, act in bad faith, and beat them with personal attacks 🤣

Classic.

InternetUser2012 ,

That was a lot of typing to avoid a simple question. You're either a shill or you're on their payroll.

NikkiDimes ,

Spotify is the only good music app my car supports. It is what it is.

JSens1998 ,

I don't understand why people pay for a music subscription when you can just use YouTube Music (ReVanced or FOSS YTMusic clients) for the freezies.

soloner ,

Do those things give you DJ and radio options? I'm too lazy to go find the songs I want. I'd rather just let the app put on tunes and learn what I like based on feedback and behavior.

JSens1998 ,

SimpMusic allows you to login to your Google account, and will sync your YTMusic recommendations. It also has radios. :)

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • technology@lemmy.world
  • incremental_games
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •