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

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

323 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] [email protected] 68 points 5 months ago (8 children)

As someone else said: it doesn't replace streaming even a little. Pirating is replacing buying music directly. Streaming facilitates finding new music and trying it out. Being able to listen to anything at any time. You simply can't do that with downloads; no one can download everything. Piracy in this case really just works for people still listening to their highschool favs and not people looking for new stuff all the time.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

I used to download exclusively when I was younger, but as I get older I’m trying out new genres from different cultures than my own and I’d miss out on it all without a streaming service.

In my opinion it’s worth it.

[–] small44 9 points 5 months ago

I never had trouble finding new music without those recommandation algorithms.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

Yes and no. It's more cumbersome for sure but I used to find music on YouTube and all that back in the day then download it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This dude hasn't heard of pirate streaming services.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Do they have the libraries of Spotify or Apple music?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

yeah actually

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes, in fact there are modded versions of the Spotify app (idk about apple) to access their library for free.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Do they work like ReVanced Youtube and just remove ads/restrictions while keeping account properties? Or do they work like NewPipe and block all the algorithm stuff, use their own accounts/playlists?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Some do the first, some do the other

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

It replaces paying for Spotify because its possible to download Spotify premium. Best of both worlds. Use Spotify or YouTube to find stuff, send it to a seedbox, load it later at home.

Biggest downside is most phones don't have SD card slots anymore.

Sent from my (slightly salty) hacked pixel 7

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Dear lord no. You can still use Spotify, YTM, and a host of other services to discover new music. The argument was valid back in the days of the excellent Google Play Music, but the algorithm has gone to shit since. There are also tons of sources of user curated playlists you can use to fund new music.

I am 51 and if I let algorithms pick my music I would never discover most of what I find and constantly be fed thirty year old music. Just this past month I discovered mehro, King Woman, Sugar High and Parra for Cuva.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

InnerTune. Its on F-Droid

[–] Mr_Wobble 2 points 5 months ago

Just installed this. I love you!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Or put some effort into finding new music? The algorithms have never suggested me anything good anyway.