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Spotify Raises Prices for Second Time in 12 Months, Now More Expensive Than Apple Music
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Streaming only exist because the music industry needed an answer against piracy. And streaming effectively killed piracy because it is more convenient then pirating for a small price to pay.
However if it is no longer a small price to pay, these streaming services are no longer the solution against piracy and people will go back to pirating.
These streaming services will soon find this out the hard way.
Still prefer Spotify to AM (mostly because it's multiplatform and AM at first was apple only and afterwards the app was awful (not that Spotify one is stellar mind you)...
All in all, would love for the artist to get more...
All in all, would love for the artist to get more...
I have seen no scientific evidence that anyone can discern the difference between CD quality stereo audio and higher than CD quality stereo audio.
And the percentage of people who can tell the difference between 320 kbps MP3 and uncompressed CD-quality audio is miniscule, if not zero.
In that case, why bill US customers for a tax that’s only going to apply to subscribers in the EU?
Spotify has seen a minus result for years. It is not subscription money that keeps them afloat, it is venture capital money. Recently they had to lay off almost 20% employee's as they need to pay for the office space at 4 WTC.
Most subscription services fees are exorbitant already and we’re all going along with it… 🤷🏻♂️ and not just the main music streaming services, for example look at Apple News, Soundcloud, Dropbox, YouTube…
The sheer incompetence of the Spotify leadership is the main factor why I moved to Apple Music. This is another step further away from convincing me coming back. What utter bollocks.
If the company has been making a loss for years, which senior executives have been fired because of it? If they layed off 20% of the workforce, how many of the senior executives are part of that 20%? I bet none of them. Therefore my point still stands.
Because Apple Music has a terrible interface, and less features.
I wish Spotify would at least match how much Apple pays musicians.
Them wording it as "we occasionally update our prices" is so funny to me.
Spotify is just bad for sound quality and I believe it has no spatial audio. I use Apple Music because I have a lot of music locally, it's cheaper and pays artists a lot better. My gripe is that I found Spotify to be a much more dynamic service when it comes to music discovery. It just gets you, and starts showing you really personalized suggestions from a big selection of artists, and it feels like they suggest songs based on the types of sound you love, not based on what feels like superficial connections between artists. Apple Music just feels like a simpler algorithm where they throw in "similar artists" and will constantly play songs that don't really match my taste, whereas Spotify will show you the exact song of an artists that has the sound you like.
Spotify is just bad for sound quality and I believe it has no spatial audio. I use Apple Music because I have a lot of music locally, it's cheaper and pays artists a lot better. My gripe is that I found Spotify to be a much more dynamic service when it comes to music discovery. It just gets you, and starts showing you really personalized suggestions from a big selection of artists, and it feels like they suggest songs based on the types of sound you love, not based on what feels like superficial connections between artists. Apple Music just feels like a simpler algorithm where they throw in "similar artists" and will constantly play songs that don't really match my taste, whereas Spotify will show you the exact song of an artists that has the sound you like.
Everything keeps going up with streaming, food, etc. It has to stop and the only way to do it is stop buying the subscription music or streaming services. You can’t just keep going along.
Spotify will simply use EU and Apple's business practices as an excuse – put the blame on CTF, even if the blame is misplaced for non-EU users. I wouldn't put this line of thinking beyond Ek. Also, EU might be Spotify's largest market, so they'll just throw out the baby (US) with the bathwater.
I am just waiting for all the labels to create their own streaming service soon! Greed has no limit
Go on Facebook market place and you can jump start your physical collection of CD's. They often have them for free or couple hundred mixed CD's for under £50. same with eBay.
if the pricing of streaming keeps going up I hope it drives people back to physical media.
Once you have your essential albums then you're probably only buying a handful of new albums a year which works out cheaper than streaming!
if the pricing of streaming keeps going up I hope it drives people back to physical media.
Once you have your essential albums then you're probably only buying a handful of new albums a year which works out cheaper than streaming!
Great list.
Another big problem Spotify have is that their entire operation is so bloated. They have almost 10,000 employees - what a music streaming company needs that many people for is a total mystery to me.
Add to this non-core initiatives like the Car Thing (lol), audiobooks, and paid podcasts plus the fact that much of Spotify's growth seems to be coming from the free tier and you have a pretty good picture of why the business isn't doing so hot.
Regardless of Apple.
no matter what audio quality you use
spotify sounds like listening to music underwater in a garbage can
absolutely garbage mixing
spotify sounds like listening to music underwater in a garbage can
absolutely garbage mixing
I think it’s more about the fact that everything seems to go up a buck quite often. This is Spotify’s second increase in 12 months?
They aren’t the only ones raising things up a buck either.
Paying hundreds of millions to podcasters has to be paid some how. I just wish we could lock in at <$10.
It’s very frustrating when there is $X increase on this and that service. Seems like we as consumers never get a reprieve from price increases and everything is handled per user per month — which also is no fun.
It’s very frustrating when there is $X increase on this and that service. Seems like we as consumers never get a reprieve from price increases and everything is handled per user per month — which also is no fun.
Apple Music has much better quality than CD.
They work off the 24-bit/192Khz digital masters whereas if you rip CDs it will be 16-bit 44.1Khz.
If you have crap gear then Shopify/CDs might be enough but if you don't then it's hard to go back.
Interesting. One of my pieces has been streamed over 73,000 times. For that I’ve been paid $1.60. If I’d sold a comparable number of singles out of my trunk, I could have earned about $36,000. IMO, it’s a trade-off. There are only so many venues at which a musician can perform. Streaming allows me to reach millions of people in dozens of countries, something I previously couldn’t do. What I’ve given up for that opportunity is profit.
Are they paying any more to artists?
Spotify today announced that it is increasing Premium plan pricing in the United States in order to "bring users the best experience."
The Individual Premium plan is now priced at $11.99, up from $10.99. Duo is priced at $16.99 (up $2), Family is priced at $19.99 (up $3), and Student is priced at $5.99 (no change).
This is actually the second time Spotify has raised prices in the last 12 months. In July 2023, the Premium plan price went from $9.99 to $10.99, so there has been a 20 percent increase in the last year. Prior to the July 2023 increase, Duo was priced at $12.99 and the Family plan was priced at $15.99, marking a 31 percent total increase for Duo and a 25 percent increase for Family after the 2024 price hikes.
Spotify subscribers will soon be seeing emails notifying them of the upcoming price increase. Emails will include instructions on how to cancel a Premium subscription.
At $11.99 and $19.99, respectively, the Spotify Premium and Family plans are now more expensive than the equivalent Apple Music plans. Apple's Individual plan is priced at $10.99 per month, while the Family plan is priced at $16.99 per month.
Article Link: Spotify Raises Prices for Second Time in 12 Months, Now More Expensive Than Apple Music
No?
Still a garbage company.