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Spotify jacking up their prices at the end of July

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69


I love their message of “you are getting nothing in return but we’re gonna need that extra dollar a month, chump.”

Might switch to Apple music but all my playlists and podcasts etc are on spotify.
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
I've just installed SpotX after 13 years of Spotify premium. I've started to unsub to everything, it's tiresome.
 

Nvzman

Member
I still pay for Spotify premium because originally I had a student offer that bundled Hulu with it, so I pay standard Spotify prices for both services, which is pretty worth it IMO
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
Don’t they invest in content pretty good? I know when I used Spotify I loved their podcasts.
Certainly not in the music department, at least in terms of compensating the folks who make the content. Here’s how much each service pays out and the number of streams needed for an artist to make a buck:

Tidal Music$0.0128478
Apple Music$0.008125
Amazon Music$0.00402249
Spotify$0.00318314
YouTube Music$0.002500
Pandora$0.00133752
 

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
Considering how much I need music and my Spotify Liked songs list for basic survival, that dollar increase is nothin'.
 

badblue

Gold Member
Yeah but they limit your monthly hours even for premium
I was not aware of that but I've also not run into that barrier.

I listened through 3 books last month. Each 10+ hours.

edit: weird. It's 15 hours. something must be broken in my favor.
 
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Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Certainly not in the music department, at least in terms of compensating the folks who make the content. Here’s how much each service pays out and the number of streams needed for an artist to make a buck:

Tidal Music$0.0128478
Apple Music$0.008125
Amazon Music$0.00402249
Spotify$0.00318314
YouTube Music$0.002500
Pandora$0.00133752
Ugh...popular artists feasting here.
(back of the napkin math here not accounting for actual streamed tracks)...
So someone like Taylor Swift who has 105 million listeners monthly is pulling in at least $335,506.00 a month, if every "monthly listener" only streamed one track.
Then a group like The Smile only has 625,000 monthly listeners. $1,987.00 if every "monthly listener" only streamed one track.

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xrnzaaas

Member
They're gonna lose me as a non-paying customer when they'll start putting ads into podcasts in my region. I love how I can listen to 2 hour podcast with zero interruptions.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
They're gonna lose me as a non-paying customer when they'll start putting ads into podcasts in my region. I love how I can listen to 2 hour podcast with zero interruptions.
So many podcast makers are embedding their own ads in podcasts these days that it doesn't matter what Spotify does. Its annoying. Or telling you to subscribe on some other platform where they make more money.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
$11.99 a month, or $99 for the year still. Kinda crazy not to get the annual plan if you know you're gonna be subscribed anyway.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
You can’t switch to annual payments anymore
I found this out a few months ago when I got tired of seeing a $10 charge every month for my wife's account. I purchased a $99 annual subscription card - then she had to cancel her premium account (which took it back to "free tier") then I was able to apply the pre-paid card just fine.


 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
I found this out a few months ago when I got tired of seeing a $10 charge every month for my wife's account. I purchased a $99 annual subscription card - then she had to cancel her premium account (which took it back to "free tier") then I was able to apply the pre-paid card just fine.



Ooh good shit, thank you. I’m doing this at the end of the month. Hate these little monthly subs so much.
 


spotify has never made a profit because the labels essentially has them as a hostage. Unlike netflix, it doesnt have original content. They can't start their own label either without risk of big labels boycotting them. They tried to diversify to other things like podcasts and audiobooks but there are stiff competition.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
So many podcast makers are embedding their own ads in podcasts these days that it doesn't matter what Spotify does. Its annoying. Or telling you to subscribe on some other platform where they make more money.
I guess must be lucky or interested in niche stuff, because almost all podcasts I listen to are ad free and their creators only ask for a sub at the beginning / end. There was one bigger exception with Beyond the Grid podcast where I got annoyed with the frequest ad segments and unsubbed.
 

Meicyn

Gold Member


spotify has never made a profit because the labels essentially has them as a hostage. Unlike netflix, it doesnt have original content. They can't start their own label either without risk of big labels boycotting them. They tried to diversify to other things like podcasts and audiobooks but there are stiff competition.

Nah, lack of profitability is 100% on Spotify. They’re all subject to the demands from labels. Apple Music is profitable. Even Pandora figured out how to eek out a profit, and at the $10/month tier Pandora lets you build custom playlists like the other services. Spotify is focused on maximizing growth and maintaining their market dominance no matter the cost.
 

PSYGN

Member
I don't pay for Spotify. I just turn the volume down when annoying ads play. I'm actually surprised they don't play it more or pause ads at low volume/mute like they used to, or maybe that's something they are nice about on Desktop?
 
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eddie4

Genuinely Generous
I just buy the albums I want on Bandcamp, as most of them are available, stream from the app, or download the .flac files and self host on the subsonic app. I mean with subscriptions you pay for everything and own nothing.
 
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ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Nah, lack of profitability is 100% on Spotify. They’re all subject to the demands from labels. Apple Music is profitable.
On what authority? Apple doesn't disclose the figures on that.

Even Pandora figured out how to eek out a profit, and at the $10/month tier Pandora lets you build custom playlists like the other services. Spotify is focused on maximizing growth and maintaining their market dominance no matter the cost.
As I understand, the vast majority of Pandora users do not subscribe to it and use it as personalized radio more than anything else.

Something tells me the financial structure of that is very different to spotify. We know that labels love being on playlists, it wouldn't surprise me if they were still playing favorites with the radio station-like dynamic.
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
On what authority? Apple doesn't disclose the figures on that.
A mixture of data allows one to put some puzzle pieces together.

Apple Music brought in $9.2 billion in revenue last year, from 93 million users. Apple Music does not have a freemium model, you either pay or you’re out. Essentially they are bringing in close to $99 per user annually.

Spotify brought in $13.2 billion in revenue last year, from 551 million users. You have 220 million paid users, leaving the majority on the free path while ad revenue continues to decline. Math it out, and Spotify is making just under $24 per user annually.

Spotify lost half a billion last year. Apple Music brings in four times as much revenue per user and serves less than a fifth of the userbase, meaning less costs on servers, bandwidth, employees, etc. Apple can afford to pay almost three times as much per stream than Spotify because the math easily works out in their favor. It’s pretty clear that Apple Music is profitable.


As I understand, the vast majority of Pandora users do not subscribe to it and use it as personalized radio more than anything else.

Something tells me the financial structure of that is very different to spotify. We know that labels love being on playlists, it wouldn't surprise me if they were still playing favorites with the radio station-like dynamic.
About 13% of Pandora users are on the premium tier. They also pay the least to artists of the ones I listed, however they managed to negotiate that with the labels. Despite having the vast majority of their users on the free plan, they still earned over $638 million in profit last year and have been profitable for four years running. You can speculate about how much different the financial structure is, but Spotify made their own bed. When you pursue growth at all costs and post a profit loss every single year since 2006, that isn’t the music labels’ fault.

 

ZehDon

Member
The normalisation of "we need more money to keep giving you the same stuff" in the streaming era is aggravating.
If nothing is changing, why are you changing the price?
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Might switch to Apple music but all my playlists and podcasts etc are on spotify.
I am constantly rotating between free months on Apple Music / Deezer / Spotify / etc., what you describe is not as important in the end. How much music can you consume? Just find the playlist of the mood you want and press Shuffle.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
The normalisation of "we need more money to keep giving you the same stuff" in the streaming era is aggravating.
If nothing is changing, why are you changing the price?
Because “hook you up with low price, then increase it” is an MO for digital offerings everywhere. It has your gullibility and laziness baked into the business model.
 
I cancelled my duo account as it went from £12.99 last year (I believe) to £14.99 and now £17.99. Sorry but I'm not paying that for no additional features. I've moved over to YouTube instead since I watch so much stuff on there and music is included. It might not be quite as good as Spotify but it's cheaper and does the same job ultimately.
 

Griffon

Member
For the same price I buy an album per month on Bandcamp. I own more music than I can ever hope to, and I can stop at any moment and still have everything.

You people are getting swindled.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
For the same price I buy an album per month on Bandcamp. I own more music than I can ever hope to, and I can stop at any moment and still have everything.

You people are getting swindled.
That's interesting, I was going to post that the monthly Spotify fee isn't so bad, versus the cost of my cd buying habit 20 years ago (oh God). I used to buy a single album for more than $11.99 most weeks. In that sense, Spotify is way, way, way cheaper than physical media was.

But, I guess the question is more about people's usage. If they're paying $11.99 every month and only ever listen to Taylor Swift, then it's a big expense. It'd be cheaper to buy her album every other year (or however often). But, if you listen to a couple of new albums every month it starts to make a lot of sense.

I've still got a box or two with a few hundred CDs in, most of them are ripped to my NAS but I never ever play either. I just use my Spotify sub, my girlfriend and I have a duo account and it's even cheaper that way.

I don't expect it to be popular to say, but I think music is too cheap now. I honestly don't think the average person values music as much as they used to.
 
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nbcjr

Member
is there any way to migrate playlists? The EU should get on this, not being able to migrate platforms is anticonsumer.
 
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