Spotify Launches Cheaper $10.99/Month Premium Plan Without Audiobooks

[LeeW]

Sticking with music I own. Renting is silly… 😉

Sticking with the music I own is silly to me. I pay for the ability to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, not to restrict myself to whatever I buy.

And besides, you don't own anything when it comes to music. Only the copyright holders/creators do.

 

[richpjr]

Using VPN is stealing?

It most countries using a VPN is not illegal, but it certainly is immoral and clearly violates the terms and conditions you agree to when signing up for it. They are starting to crack down on spoofed locations not matching billing addresses.

 

[toobravetosave]

Sticking with the music I own is silly to me. I pay for the ability to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, not to restrict myself to whatever I buy.

And besides, you don't own anything when it comes to music. Only the copyright holders/creators do.

i mean i might not own the legally fictitious property rights to the songs themselves but you are just flat out wrong to say i don’t own “anything” when it comes to my cds vinyls and ripped files

i own plenty lol

 

[Biro]

Sticking with the music I own is silly to me. I pay for the ability to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, not to restrict myself to whatever I buy.

And besides, you don't own anything when it comes to music. Only the copyright holders/creators do.

If you own a CD, for all practical purposes, you own that music. You can listen to that CD for as long as it physically functions, in any device that will play it. You can also duplicate the contents of that CD to any device you want as many times are you want.

 

[NagasakiGG]

It most countries using a VPN is not illegal, but it certainly is immoral and clearly violates the terms and conditions you agree to when signing up for it. They are starting to crack down on spoofed locations not matching billing addresses.

I find it rather immoral paying highest price just because we have such high salaries in Switzerland. Neither Netflix, nor Spotify and most other providers have server, let alone employees to maintain here. So charging high price because of “we can” isn’t immoral but wanting to pay cheap prices is?

 

[Macalicious2011]

Raise the price twice in a year and remove audiobooks for $1 less and convince people it's a discount. I see you Spotify.

******tification 101. In 12 months this $10.99 price will be $12.99

 

[jimimac71]

So far I use the free version and find it superior to YouTube Music. I don't listen to enough music to justify paying for it.
I would like an audiobook rental service.

 

[amaze1499]

Spotify - the longer you stay the more you pay.

 

[artifex]

So far I use the free version and find it superior to YouTube Music. I don't listen to enough music to justify paying for it.
I would like an audiobook rental service.

Have you checked with your local library system? Many of them now let you check out audiobooks and music as well as ebooks through apps like Libby and Hoopla. In my family, we remind each other to "get your hooplas in" at the end of each month before the checkout limit resets . The BBC's iPlayer has a lot of programs on demand, too.

 

[richpjr]

I find it rather immoral paying highest price just because we have such high salaries in Switzerland. Neither Netflix, nor Spotify and most other providers have server, let alone employees to maintain here. So charging high price because of “we can” isn’t immoral but wanting to pay cheap prices is?

Nobody forces you to sign up for a service that contains specific terms of service you do not agree with. You can freely use something else. Now agreeing to them and then deliberately violating them speaks volumes.

 

[SFjohn]

Sticking with the music I own is silly to me. I pay for the ability to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, not to restrict myself to whatever I buy.

And besides, you don't own anything when it comes to music. Only the copyright holders/creators do.

I have very specific tastes in music that I’ve collected over my lifetime. I have so many playlists on all my devices I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want and I don’t need internet or even power to listen to my favorite stuff. None of my songs just disappear when the service stops featuring it…

 

[richpjr]

I have very specific tastes in music that I’ve collected over my lifetime. I have so many playlists on all my devices I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want and I don’t need internet or even power to listen to my favorite stuff. None of my songs just disappear when the service stops featuring it…

In the end, what works for you is all that matters.

As others have mentioned, the ability to discover new artists is why I pay for it as I have a very varied taste in music and love finding new bands.

 

[LeeW]

I have very specific tastes in music that I’ve collected over my lifetime. I have so many playlists on all my devices I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want and I don’t need internet or even power to listen to my favorite stuff. None of my songs just disappear when the service stops featuring it…

So, renting is not silly unless you have a particular case, as you have. And let's not call it renting; it's not even that. It's a subscription to access hundreds of millions of tracks on demand. As noted by @richpjr above, for many, me included, it's all about discovery and finding new artists and tracks you would never have heard otherwise.

Spotify gets that right, and Apple or others can't touch it. Once Spotify gets to know you, it will introduce you to many new artists based on your listening; it's virtually perfect, and much of my listening over the past two years is thanks to Spotify understanding my likes; not just that, but recommending material I like. You're paying for more than just music with Spotify. That's why it's so popular.

 

[SSDGUY]

Call me when they have a cheaper plan without that idiot Rogan.

You poor thing. Does the app make you listen to him?

 

[gaximus]

More of this, please. Give me a cheaper YouTube premium subscription without Music and a cheaper Prime membership with two-day shipping only.

Stop giving them ideas, all they will do is raise the price wait a a bit, then introduce a new lower ”music feee” tier for “cheaper“ price.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Sticking with the music I own is silly to me. I pay for the ability to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, not to restrict myself to whatever I buy.

And besides, you don't own anything when it comes to music. Only the copyright holders/creators do.

That last part is wrong.

Owning an officially licensed copy of a piece of music means that you own it for your own private use.

No, you can't play it or sell it in a commercial or public setting without permission or paying the rights-holders.

This can vary greatly depending on the exact circumstances, like how it was released, who exactly are the rights-holders, which country you reside in, etc.

But an officially licensed piece of music on something like a CD or vinyl is yours if you have paid for it, or have otherwise acquired an official copy of it, unlike a song sitting in a streaming service that the rights-holders are renting to you and can remove from the service at their discretion.

And if the rights-holders were to remove a song from the streaming service you have paid a fee to use, legally, they'd actually have to refund you some amount as a compensation for having less music to listen to for the rest of the subscription period.

Of course, considering the number of songs available in your average streaming service catalogue, the loss you'd suffer would only amount to a negligible fraction of $10 and not worth pursuing.

But you do own the physical copies of music that you have in your possession and can use them for your own private use.

If the physical copy of a piece of music is bootlegged, aka not an officially licensed copy, then you only own the physical medium and do not have the right to listen to the music in any setting under any circumstances.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

So, renting is not silly unless you have a particular case, as you have. And let's not call it renting; it's not even that. It's a subscription to access hundreds of millions of tracks on demand. As noted by @richpjr above, for many, me included, it's all about discovery and finding new artists and tracks you would never have heard otherwise.

Spotify gets that right, and Apple or others can't touch it. Once Spotify gets to know you, it will introduce you to many new artists based on your listening; it's virtually perfect, and much of my listening over the past two years is thanks to Spotify understanding my likes; not just that, but recommending material I like. You're paying for more than just music with Spotify. That's why it's so popular.

Streaming is great in theory. And, for the music consumer/listener, mostly also in practice. At least if you don't consider the fact that you'll be paying indefinitely.

What makes streaming suck tremendously is the fact that all the music sitting in streaming catalogues is subject to any major or minor decision of the streaming service or the rights holders.

This means that songs/recordings can be altered and removed for any or no reason at all.

This has and is happening, and we, the subscribers/buyers, have no say in this and have never been compensated.

Buying and owning physical copies of music makes it possible for rights-holders to profit from their music. And the buyer and owner of the copy avoids any potential scenario where the music is taken away from them.

 

[NagasakiGG]

Nobody forces you to sign up for a service that contains specific terms of service you do not agree with. You can freely use something else. Now agreeing to them and then deliberately violating them speaks volumes.

I know for people in the US it's hard to understand that companies aren't above politics and that there actually are consumer rights, but, you know, in Europe we don't really care about ToS.

Also in Switzerland there's a law against Price discrimination due to Geo Location, so I'm not even doing (legally) shady stuff. If Netflix or any other tries to cut my foreign subscriptions they should definitely go for it, I got a legal expense insurance.

"Companies when exerting "long-distance trading" (Note: this includes websites) with Swiss consumers, due to their nationality, residency, or the residence of the payment service provider, are prohibited to:

[...] c. redirect the consumer without his consent to another version of a web portal that was initially seeked by him. [...]".

If I go to Netflix/Spotify.com.tr or whatever it's called, I do want to subscribe Netflix/Spotify Turkey, not Switzerland.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

YouTube needs to take lessons, remove the Music piece and charge $2 less for "Premium"...not like they won't just jack up the prices 6 months later.

It’s much harder to do for YouTube though. So many popular videos on YouTube are music videos and it’s a huge part of their content. It’ll be pretty hard to disentangle the existing licensing by separating music and non-music videos.

 

[.wojtek]

Apple Music is “kind of” cross platform since it has apps for Apple products, Windows PC and Android, however there are a lot of other things like smart speakers, smart TVs, media players, stereo receivers etc. that have Spotify support and not Apple Music. Spotify is definitely more available outside of the Apple ecosystem so that’s why I use it.

Yeah... and (for me) that's a deal breaker as I tend to have quite broad range of hardware and not only Apple stuff so I do tend to prefere solutions outside of the walled garden (Spotify, Steam, etc) as it gives me more freedom to utilise digital goods…

 

[drmacnut]

And they still refuse, even though they have been promising and testing it for years, to add a high def tier.

If it costs Spotify more to produce high-def/lossless than they estimate they will earn from having it available to users, it's not going to happen.

 

[nburwell]

I mean, good on them for backtracking and not forcing audiobooks down customers throats who have no interest in them.

I still prefer a dedicated music app (AM) and then using a separate app to access my podcasts.

 

[hooks]

Spotify... has audiobooks?
Possibly a US-only feature?

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Just finished moving all my songs over to Tidal. Same price and higher quality? Say less.

We'll have to see how their recommendations play out, but the UI is nicer.

 

[LeeW]

This means that songs/recordings can be altered and removed for any or no reason at all.

You have choices: buy it if you want, subscribe if you want, or if they take tracks away you really like, buy them. Let's not turn this into a song nobody likes. Spotify claims 615m users, Apple 100m, and with the others it will be close if not over a billion total. Streaming suits many; as long as you're finding music you like, it's all good.