Spotify Raising Prices in Multiple Countries

[Velli]

What’s interesting is that the amount of money people spend on music has gone up, the vast majority of which goes to music streaming services. This suggests that people are spending more on music than they ever used to. Contrary to saving people money, music streaming is making people part with more money than they ever used to. And for something they don’t ever own and have to pay forever for! They are the masters of manipulation.

Forgot to reply to this part: First off, according to IFPI numbers, this is false. Adjusted for inflation, peak music spending was 1999, and it's not even close. Prince fans, I guess. Second, people spend more time listening to music today than they did in 1999. So it's very feasible to argue that the value today is higher than the value then, as proven by my previous numbers.

"The vast majority of which goes to music streaming services" is also false. Spotify pays out about 2/3 of their revenue to content providers. This is a much higher share than when purchasing a CD. Yes, musicians are complaining now about low payouts from streaming services, but they were also complaining about low revenue from CD's, so nothing has changed there...

 

[Think creative]

You never had a scratched CD? Or a CD unplayable due to disc rot?

I mean, that's why you rip CD's to your computers and make back ups? Of all the good points you've made (and it's interesting hearing from someone who listens to music very, very differently than I do, or I think a lot of people) this one seems the weakest. Vinyl has a very limited life compared to a CD if you listen to the same one over and over. I'm a heavy user in my own way (I have a lots of CD's, listen to Spotify 5+ hours a day when I work) but it's interesting how much of it is the same type of stuff. I had someone once say I'm not a real music listener since a lot of it is lofi while I work, but... shrugs.

Listening to multiple versions of Beethoven's ninth however is exactly the sort of thing as I continue to curate my collection is exactly the type of thing I will be doing going forward... and then picking my favorite to keep.

 

[Jensend]

Internet is a service, music is a good. That’s the difference.

I think my music purchasing/consumption is about normal. You sound like a very heavy user.

What’s interesting is that the amount of money people spend on music has gone up, the vast majority of which goes to music streaming services. This suggests that people are spending more on music than they ever used to. Contrary to saving people money, music streaming is making people part with more money than they ever used to. And for something they don’t ever own and have to pay forever for! They are the masters of manipulation.

Really weird how much you care about something that costs $11 a month for ad-free access to most music ever recorded and released for sale. That just doesn't sound egregious to to me.

On the other hand, I don't understand people who pay up to hundreds of dollars a month for TV service that also includes ads...

 

[richpjr]

Spotify has 3X the subscribers to Apple Music. They have the market share. Why would they pay equal or more than Apple? And Apple has an advantage to sell the music as well as a digital asset on top of subs.

If that were the case then Apple should lower their developer fees to match that of a smaller App Store. Same for Amazon, Google and so on.

I’m all for artist making money, but do you tell your boss he should pay the workers more because the workers down the street at a smaller business make more, but work less?

It’s about volume of exposure.

Yep. Spotify pays musicians a lot more money than Apple does.

 

[Velli]

I mean, that's why you rip CD's to your computers and make back ups? Of all the good points you've made (and it's interesting hearing from someone who listens to music very, very differently than I do, or I think a lot of people) this one seems the weakest. Vinyl has a very limited life compared to a CD if you listen to the same one over and over. I'm a heavy user in my own way (I have a lots of CD's, listen to Spotify 5+ hours a day when I work) but it's interesting how much of it is the same type of stuff. I had someone once say I'm not a real music listener since a lot of it is lofi while I work, but... shrugs.

Listening to multiple versions of Beethoven's ninth however is exactly the sort of thing as I continue to curate my collection is exactly the type of thing I will be doing going forward... and then picking my favorite to keep.

And how are you going to listen to them before buying them?

 

[Think creative]

And how are you going to listen to them before buying them?

YouTube?

 

[Velli]

YouTube?

So, your strategy for avoiding streaming services is to use a streaming service?

Also, I think you will be sorely disappointed if your strategy for comparing specific classical performances is to use Youtube. That answer tells me this is something you have never done. Not that there is no classical on Youtube - there are some great performances on there that are not available on CD. You’re really grasping at straws with this argument. Were you even alive in the 90’s?

 

[Velli]

Yep. Spotify pays musicians a lot more money than Apple does.

I don’t have the data, but Apple’s push on Atmos is literally funding the studio world right now. What that means for the actual musicians, I don’t know. But I do count the production team as part of “the artist”, although I know that is not in the mind of the average consumer.

 

[mrochester]

Really weird how much you care about something that costs $11 a month for ad-free access to most music ever recorded and released for sale. That just doesn't sound egregious to to me.

On the other hand, I don't understand people who pay up to hundreds of dollars a month for TV service that also includes ads...

I would never subscribe to a tv service.

Subscriptions are supposed to be ad free.

 

[Velli]

I would never subscribe to a tv service.

Subscriptions are supposed to be ad free.

That’s your definition. Newspaper subscriptions have come with ads for literally 400 years.

 

[wbeasley]

For me music streaming is a huge amount more money than I’ve ever spent on music, and the trap of being stuck paying for it forever.

sounds like Spotify free tier meets your needs

streaming is half the price of a new release CD every month roughly.

6 albums/compilations a year...

with over a 1000 CDs that sat in jewel cases for years, I'm finally ripping them for back up as FLACs.
the amount of CD rot surprised me considering the discs were meant to last a lifetime and be virtually indestructible.
sometimes they look fine and still rip with errors.

some CDs I had on cassette or vinyl.
so bought them more than once.

now i can pay a fee, download locally on some devices, stream in my car and discover albums I never bought from artists i like or pick a mood playlist that often lets me discover something new.
CD selling stores are devoting less space and fewer items on sale.

i would guess this is how many view streaming.
your use case probably falls into an outlier group.

 

[Jensend]

That’s your definition. Newspaper subscriptions have come with ads for literally 400 years.

I'm a bit more sympathetic to ads that do not force a waste of time. An ad in a physical newspaper or magazine does not force me to stop engaging with the content I've paid for. It doesn't interrupt me at an unexpected time. Ads in audio and video content? No way I'm paying for it.
But you do you. I don't necessarily think it's bad that that option exists, unless it starts affecting the content even for ad-free subscribers.

 

[Velli]

I'm a bit more sympathetic to ads that do not force a waste of time. An ad in a physical newspaper or magazine does not force me to stop engaging with the content I've paid for. It doesn't interrupt me at an unexpected time. Ads in audio and video content? No way I'm paying for it.
But you do you. I don't necessarily think it's bad that that option exists, unless it starts affecting the content even for ad-free subscribers.

Oh, I pay quite a lot to avoid ads personally. Just saying that it’s not inherently either-or. People have been paying money for ad-supported TV channels for decades. I was just using newspapers as an extreme example.