Spotify Increases Premium Plan Price to $10.99 a Month

[R3k]

Wow thanks for the info! I've always heard that streaming pays a fraction of music in the old days... and this confirms it.

What do you think the solution is? People seem to love a flat-fee subscription to basically all-you can eat music.

But it's devastating to the artists.

I wish I had the answer.

It is what it is I guess. At least it's a paid model- if early Napster had won out musicians wouldn't be making anything at all.

Complicated issue, but in the end, people just dont want to pay for content while feeling entitled to it. They will cancel Netflix over a few dollars a week, they will bitch and moan that their Adblock stops blocking YouTube ads, or boycott a newspaper that has a paywall.

 

[krell100]

Still no lossless or high-res on Spotify. As mentioned above they are yet to tun a profit; my prediction is we see Spotify and possibly Tidal go the way of the Dodo in the not to distant future...

Hate the Apple Music App (both on macOS and iPad/iPhoneOS) but high res / lossless makes it worth putting up with.

 

[Stewie]

Spotify could charge $50 a month and I'd still use it over garbage Apple Music. That app never optimizes, so I had to constantly re-open it to get it to connect to anything and the shuffle is complete trash. Just to name a couple of issues with it. It gets stuck in these 50-100 song shuffle loops. Apple Music is about as useful as Siri is to me. Also, most of the people who mention lossless are probably listening to Apple Music in lossless mode via Bluetooth on Beats gear or some trash "Hi-Fi" system at home filled with Polk speakers in 3.1 surround, a Sony AVR, and HomePods while screaming "LOOOSSSSLESSSS" and pounding their chests like Kong. 🤣

Even as an old man listening on bluetooth there is a clear difference in the sound quality between Apple Music and Spotify. Also you might need a reset of your phone as I have never had those issues with Apple Music. Even when I switch to Android and used the Apple Music app on my Pixel.

But I agree that Spotify makes better recommendations, but I just hate how it sounds.

 

[5692943]

Today's Spotify increase reminded me i need to get my azz in gear to move all my music back to Apple Music from Spotify.
I'm a CLASSICAL music guy (and jazz and edm and others). With the release of Apple Music Classical, it's time to switch back.

SPOTIFY
i switched to spotify a few years ago from apple music after a search for the Bach Brandenbergs yielded just a few hundred recordings; i found the one i was looking for in spotify instantly and with 10x more.
But over years, even though Apple has tried to even the playing field, you still have to say "on Spotify" to Siri, and hope for the best.

APPLE MUSIC CLASSICAL
About the time I switched to Spotify, I wrote in via a Feedback suggestion to opine that Apple was missing a huge opportunity to win over the classical crowd with its app, primarily focused on Top40 and other popular four-chord song trash, and of course the screechy yodels of Katy Perry and the like. Some months later Apple announced the purchase of Primephonic. It took them a while to get the app working with Apple ecosystem, and there are a lot of missing features and interoperability, but the search and added metadata is what I really want from it. It seems that Apple is improving Music app incrementally and eventually Classical app can be just for classical lovers.

APPLE MUSIC TRIAL COMES WITH HOME POD PURCHASE
Few months ago I bought the new-gen HomePods to fill more rooms with music (AirPlay over multiple speakers is *still* a nightmare, but that's a different comment) and got a six-month trial of Apple Music. Time to get my music transitioned over!
(and the other benefit from new HomePods is thermometer and humidity measurements which I can add to automation events)


THE OTHERS

AMAZON MUSIC
i tried amazon music years ago when i went all-in on prime and all things amazon. i quickly quit when simple searches for classical music yielded amateurish self-recorded performances, and the better ensembles were buried pages deep or just not available.

PANDORA
i started in pandora ages ago and spent days and weeks creating stations that matched the exact sound i wanted. big band varieties, jazz trios, edm varieties and many more. Eventually Spotify improved their algorithms and mostly has parity with Pandora.

 

[gund1234]

i thought Spotify was supposed to be cheaper now because they are allowing users to pay on the web instead of in app purchase, no Apple tax, they were supposed to pass on the savings to customers ?

 

[svish]

Makes price equal to Apple music. Prefer Apple music.

 

[cgs1xx]

Where’s the “delete account” button in the iOS app? I thought all apps had to have this nowadays?

 

[laptech]

"So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world," the company said in a post announcing the changes. "These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform."

Basically that translates to 'We need to pay our directors big wages and huge bonuses so they can come up with the innovative ideas'

 

[zach-coleman]

I have not liked anything Spotify has done in years. The new Home Screen made me cancel and go back to Apple Music, but I hated how much they pushed podcasts and audiobooks too. I imagine that extra dollar for “innovating“ will just be used for more clutter that makes it a worse music app.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I switched to Amazon music a few years ago from Spotify as it was cheaper and I found it had everything I wanted. I keep trying Apple Music whenever they offer the free monthly trials, but cancel at the end of the period because it’s not better than Amazon IMO. I wouldn’t bother with Spotify again if the prices are creeping up.

 

[compwiz1202]

Apple Music for the win.

Agree. And why woukl Duo go up more than family???

 

[compwiz1202]

Makes price equal to Apple music. Prefer Apple music.

It's even cheaper for the $10 AF perk through Verizon Wireless

 

[Rigby]

i thought Spotify was supposed to be cheaper now because they are allowing users to pay on the web instead of in app purchase, no Apple tax, they were supposed to pass on the savings to customers ?

They do. It was always about having a level playing field. If Spotify used in-app billing, they'd have to pay 30% of their subscription fee to Apple, which Apple Music obviously doesn't. In other words, with in-app billing they'd have to be more expensive than Apple Music.

 

[jonparadise]

I subscribe to the Apple One family plan. There are five of us who use it, so Apple Music works out as very cheap per person, even without all the other parts of the bundle.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I tried Spotify and each time after a month I always go back to Apple Music. I guess I just like the way AM is organized, and Marvis is my favorite app on IOS, which you can't use with Spotify. Also, Last.fm is unreliable. I wish they did more with playlists like Spotify does, but after using Itunes for like 20 years for music and podcasts, I'm just used to that interface more than what Spotify provides. Also, I have music downloaded from other sources and how Spotify integrates other sources leaves a lot to be desired.