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

submitted 5 months ago by cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world 63 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 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.

[–] GenEcon@lemm.ee 26 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 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).

[–] kwirky@lemmy.ca 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.

[–] GenEcon@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

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

[–] Spedwell@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

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 :/

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] exanime@lemmy.today 10 points 5 months ago

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

[–] Manalith@midwest.social 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

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@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

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