Discussion about all things music, music production, and the music industry. Your own music is also acceptable here.
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I've had Spotify Premium for four years at $9.99.
And it's going up $1.00.
For the enjoyment I get out of it and all the new music I've found, that really doesn't feel like a huge increase, TBH. If they were jumping $5-$10 I might be angry, but one dollar? GTFO.
I expect things to get more expensive over time, just reasonably so.
In 2014 a standard premium plan was $10 for one person, a family plan (6 people) would cost you $15.
Historically not bad to have a single dollar increase over nearly 10 years.
Apple Music is one dollar above, 10.99 for one persion, 15.99 family, so it's a fairly consistent pricing model for the big players anyway.
Apple Music is the one streaming service I pay for and it's because it fits in better with my tech ecosystem than alternatives.
A real damn shame the rest of streaming services can't agree on fair and consistent pricing.
Agreed.
I pay $2.20/m for a YouTube Family plan, which includes YouTube Music, via setting up with VPN, none needed for use just billing.
Turning currency profile
I'm not sure that's a fair comparison, as spotify/apple music provide much functionality google/YT music does not.
Here is an article from May of this year that touches on concept I'm trying to raise here:
YouTube Music vs Spotify: Can Google even compete?
https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-music-vs-spotify-1120611/
They are different products for different use-cases that overlap in core areas (in my opinion). With that said, I'm slightly surprised as it does package in video ads as well but it's probably just because Google can subsidize with the established overarching userbase they have.
has more playlists, offers more robust social features, and gives you access to loads of podcasts.
Personally, none of those things are important to me, but ad-free YouTube is something I do care about. It makes YTM no-brainer better value than Spotify.
Yes YTM most certainly has value of its own, just different use-cases for the two.
If you took my comment to mean you should switch, then I worded it poorly. Use what makes the most sense for what you want out of the service!
Edit: I actually just saw that YT is changing their pricing for premium as well:
To continue delivering great service and features, we are increasing the Premium plan price to $13.99/month. As a long-standing and valued member, you are currently paying a lower rate for Premium than the rate available to new subscribers. To show our appreciation for your loyalty, we're giving you at least three extra months at our current pricing…
louis rossman video about YouTube pricing changes (skip to 5:20)
I haven't seen any email from them yet, either it hasn't effected Family Plan pricing or it's a US specific change.
For real. I love Spotify. I've had a paid membership for many years, and it's easily one of the best values for the money. The algorithm knows my musical tastes pretty goddamn well, because my Spotify generated playlists are usually goldmines of stuff I'd never heard before or completely forgot about.
My only problem is how little the artists make off the service... but it's a catch-22 because I've ended up going to concerts and/or buying merch from artists I only knew about BECAUSE of Spotify.
My only problem is how little the artists make off the service… but it’s a catch-22 because I’ve ended up going to concerts and/or buying merch from artists I only knew about BECAUSE of Spotify.
I feel you there. I try to support the artists when they come to town too.
Spotify is my best source for casually finding out that [X] artist is coming to town.
This is the way.
I expect things to get cheaper over time as the company learns how to run more efficiently and use new technologies to lower running costs. It never happens, but I always expect it to.
I'm not sure what country you're living in, but here in America, that's an unreasonable expectation.
I never again want to read the phrase "investor pressure". I'll pay the buck, but fuck shareholders.
Oof, figures. I guess everybody is going to jump on this train. Like they have the mentality of my HS teachers... It's not that much... Sure 8 other teachers also assigned me "not that much", and now it's very much much. A double positively you're getting fucked.
Well, assuming other inflation is pushing prices higher, you'll see it with anything trying to keep "real income" constant. That said, I've never seen the point of using spotify at all so...
No doubt. What gets me is something another person pointed out. You can get almost any premium streaming service for around that price that offers a lot more content than a single music streaming service.
They'll probably be the next to jack up their prices though.
I pay a lot for youtube ad free, but at least I get more than just music with that. For a little more than what I'm paying for that you could subscribe to more than a few movie streaming services.
I'm paying $20/month for Disney+/Hulu/ESPN ad free for my entire family. I'm paying about that for youtube family plan.
My yearly wage increase sure as shit isn't coming close to matching inflation, but that won't stop companies from extracting more and more money from me while paying their employees less because "the state of the economy"... And then they make as much or more while we make less, and pay more.
They’ll probably be the next to jack up their prices though.
The entire industry will. It'll be like in 2021 when the world kinda sorta reopened and food and beverage manufacturers basically unilaterally decided to raise prices by 30%.
$12 a year isn't much of a boost, though.
They'll keep jacking up their prices, because of inflation, but they won't pay their employees to match, nobody will. They'll make more, we'll make less, and we'll pay more for services we use, further increasing their profits.
You're right.
That's the way of things in America, because 98% of the voting population votes for it every two years. Too few of us are willing to hold anyone accountable.
Agreed.
Well, I think they do risk costing too much. I felt this with the recent Netflix changes. Spotify at least (to my understanding) has far closer to "all music" than any streaming service has "all shows / movies" so there's that too, you probably should compare to several streaming services.
But you're right - at a certain price people just have to go without. At a lower price people might still choose to go without. I don't know where those prices are for these services. The closest I've ever come is Satallite Radio. I was fine paying ~$100 a year when I drove every day. But they keep trying to charge like $260 if I don't watch it at renewal. I could call and get them down to about half, so it had crept up to $120 or so. But now I don't drive much with WFH. So even $120 wasn't worth it. For my once a month or so long trip, I have a smartphone that I can stream, preload with audio, and do podcasts from. So I cancelled. Eventually I got a letter "please come back" - we'll give you a year for $60. Well, I'm assuming they're not losing money on this - it would be kind of stupid to IMO, so it means they could probably offer it for $60ish a year but try and get 4 times that amount if you don't pay attention. IDK, I never would have wasted their reps time yearly or cancelled if it was just $60 a year. But in the aggregate I bet the people who just don't pay attention make them more money than the cost of dealing with someone like me.
What was my point? Oh yea - it's not just "can I afford this", but do I think it gives me $x in value? I might suggest keeping your eyes open for alternate sources or alternate entertainment and you might save a lot of money.
I grew up poor(ish), have been close to homelessness in my life more than once. So I'm not stranger to going without. Fortunately for me I can afford price hikes like this without even taking notice. I feel I am privileged. It doesn't make me any less angry though. I don't mind the price hikes on services due to inflation, but those same companies will lay you off and refuse pay raises. Last company I worked for told me I was lucky to get anything at all. But they increased their prices, didn't suffer a single loss, and they still used it as an excuse to fuck their employees, and their customers. At the end of the day they made more because of it, not less. I don't care about pay raises for myself, but the people under me absolutely deserve more.
I feel you, dude.
I am lucky to work for a place that takes really good care of me, so a dollar a month is basically nothing, but I still save and invest every dollar I can because in America, your life can go from privileged to impoverished in the blink of an eye if you don't have a backup plan.
Well, I think they do risk costing too much.
I don't mind the extra buck for Spotify, but this is a legit concern. Nearly every American at least is suffering under a 30% to 50% increase in their cost of living over the last two years, and the Federal Government isn't doing anything to address it. People are going to be unsubscribing to a lot of these services and doing a lot more pirating.
Here's my thing. Still no HiFi when you can get it from Apple or Amazon at no extra charge. I'd have switched already if I wasn't too lazy to recreate my Spotify playlists.
Investors are the scum of the earth and nobody can convince me otherwise.
Thank god I only use Spotify for discovery then buy downloads of music for those that I can.
who the fuck is still paying for netflix/youtube/spotify/etc
I stuck with Spotify for years because of the student discount. It was like $5 a month + free Hulu with ads. Got grandfathered into for years until I cancelled it last month.
Yeah I feel that, I ran out of my student plans long ago so now I sail the seas lol.
I was happy to pay but as we all know prices continue to rise regardless of content holes/droughts/deserts. Maybe the thing you want is on a streaming service you pay for, maybe it was on there last week but no longer, etc etc.
Fuck you corpos, you’re taking money out of your own pockets!
Probably no one, as you can pirate anything Netflix produces, use Freetube or Brave to watch youtube ad-free, and spotify is free with ads.
No fucking way I'm ever listening to music with ads...
I would sooner get a tattoo of Ronald Reagan on my ball sack than listen to music with ads. I'm not a barbarian.
At least 3 people are still paying; hope I was able to help.
Ah, yes… I can finally complete my dastardly plan cue evil laugh
I'm stuck in the Network effect. I only use Spotify because Spotify Connect requires premium and all of my friends use Spotify.
Otherwise, I'd be using Deezer or getting all my music locally like I used to.
uBlock origin works really well with spotify on PC