33 votes

Spotify raises US prices of premium streaming plans for second time in one year

29 comments

  1. [8]
    plutonic
    Link
    I listen to a lot of music (roughly 50,000 minutes last year). To me Spotify is still the best value for money of any of the subscriptions that I pay for. To have access to such a large library of...

    I listen to a lot of music (roughly 50,000 minutes last year). To me Spotify is still the best value for money of any of the subscriptions that I pay for. To have access to such a large library of music and be able to listen to whatever I want whenever I want is priceless. I am also now using it to listen to audiobooks at no additional cost (I only listen during my morning commute which comes in just under 15hr/month, lucky me). I remember paying upwards of $15-20 for a single album, now I listen to 30+ new albums a month (most of them once and never again) for less than the cost of a single album previously. Add in 'Release Radar' for the 5000+ artists I follow and the recommendation algorithms (love them or hate them) Spotify would have to increase its price by a lot more before I started questioning its value.

    12 votes
    1. [7]
      idiotheart
      Link Parent
      I'm in the same boat. It annoys me that they're raising the price because I doubt artists will see an increase in payouts, but 11.99 is still an insanely good value for me personally. The music I...

      I'm in the same boat. It annoys me that they're raising the price because I doubt artists will see an increase in payouts, but 11.99 is still an insanely good value for me personally. The music I have found and listened to through Spotify has genuinely been life changing and gotten me through crushingly dark times. I've also lightly been using it for audiobooks, but never reaching the 15 hour cap. Mostly just listening to books I put down and want to pick back up and need a little help jogging my memory. I inevitably buy vinyls for albums I love and go to live shows whenever I can to show support as well as the odd piece of merch here and there, so I don't feel too guilty.

      Several years ago, in my darkest year, I listened to 130,000 hours of music. Without Spotify and Stereogum.com, I'm not entirely sure how I would've made it. So yeah, the value is still there for me. I'm sure I will eventually jump ship from Spotify. All corporations eventually cross the line, and I'm not going to stan for any of them. For now though... Spotify it is.

      4 votes
      1. [6]
        updawg
        Link Parent
        That's literally a quarter of a year! Thank you Rent for just that one song everyone knows!

        That's literally a quarter of a year! Thank you Rent for just that one song everyone knows!

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          DefinitelyNotAFae
          Link Parent
          I hate to tell you that 130,000 hours are 14.84 years.

          I hate to tell you that 130,000 hours are 14.84 years.

          9 votes
          1. idiotheart
            Link Parent
            Haha woops, I definitely meant minutes. Maybe I can listen to 130,000 hours by the end of things.

            Haha woops, I definitely meant minutes. Maybe I can listen to 130,000 hours by the end of things.

            3 votes
        2. idiotheart
          Link Parent
          Wahoops! Meant minutes lol! But yeah 130,000 minutes is a lot. It wasn't all active listening, but a bunch of it was. I've never gotten nearly as close since then. I was just playing music all the...

          Wahoops! Meant minutes lol! But yeah 130,000 minutes is a lot. It wasn't all active listening, but a bunch of it was. I've never gotten nearly as close since then. I was just playing music all the time. Getting ready? music. Going to work? music. At work? music, etc etc. I was lucky to have been given an old storage room as an office and I LOVED it. Some people might scoff, but I'll take anything as an office. I work far better with privacy and music on.

          I wish I could access my old Spotify Wrapped. I found the email for 2019, but the link no longer works. I'd like to raise the amount of music, especially new music, I listen to again, but I don't think I could listen to as much as 130,000 minutes. As I've gotten older I require a bit more quiet when I'm using my critical thinking brain.

          3 votes
        3. [2]
          kingofsnake
          Link Parent
          Not the one where Mimi tells Richard to get his act together, I know, but that's first one I thought of.

          Not the one where Mimi tells Richard to get his act together, I know, but that's first one I thought of.

          1. updawg
            Link Parent
            No, the one that describes a year as being 4*130,000 minutes.

            No, the one that describes a year as being 4*130,000 minutes.

  2. [19]
    apolz
    Link
    The price increases from Spotify made me take a look at YouTube Premium which is going for $22.00 USD for a family plan. It happens to include both YouTube Music which is as good as Spotify and...

    The price increases from Spotify made me take a look at YouTube Premium which is going for $22.00 USD for a family plan.

    It happens to include both YouTube Music which is as good as Spotify and ad-free videos. As much as I am loath to give money to Google, this is a much better deal IMO.

    11 votes
    1. [3]
      devilized
      Link Parent
      Round and round we go! I moved off of YouTube Premium and onto Tidal after their last price hike.

      Round and round we go! I moved off of YouTube Premium and onto Tidal after their last price hike.

      9 votes
      1. [2]
        bl4kers
        Link Parent
        Tidal's tiers got better this year

        Tidal's tiers got better this year

        Starting April 10, 2024, you will now get access to our music library in full lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos sound for the same price you pay today of $10.99 (plus applicable sales tax)/month.
        This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier

        2 votes
        1. devilized
          Link Parent
          Yeah I was actually in the middle of my free trial when they announced that. It was a no-brainer to keep the service after that. I was hoping when I had Youtube Music that they'd introduce...

          Yeah I was actually in the middle of my free trial when they announced that. It was a no-brainer to keep the service after that. I was hoping when I had Youtube Music that they'd introduce something like that since everyone else had, but not even a whisper of it happening.

    2. [3]
      RobotOverlord525
      Link Parent
      I've been using YouTube Music since it was Google Play Music. It's not too bad. The catalog seems comparable to Spotify's and everything seems to be the same quality. Uploading some of the music I...

      I've been using YouTube Music since it was Google Play Music. It's not too bad. The catalog seems comparable to Spotify's and everything seems to be the same quality. Uploading some of the music I own that isn't actually in their catalog is handy, too (though there isn't very much of that left anymore). Hot swapping back and forth to music videos is kind of neat, also. But really, I'm there for the the ad-free YouTube. I watch a ton of YouTube and I absolutely despise ads. So for me, it's basically a no-brainer.

      Despite that, my wife and daughter hate the interface of YouTube Music so much that they use Spotify anyway. Which I think is absurd but I couldn't talk them out of it. Though, admittedly, the UI really is not great. Both on desktop and mobile. There are still features missing that iTunes had 20 years ago. And playlist management generally kind of sucks.

      4 votes
      1. [2]
        DefinitelyNotAFae
        Link Parent
        Does YouTube Music/Premium work for a family and multiple profiles or just one per sub? I'm dumb and just read the parent comment said family plan. I'm going back to bed.

        Does YouTube Music/Premium work for a family and multiple profiles or just one per sub?

        I'm dumb and just read the parent comment said family plan. I'm going back to bed.

        1 vote
        1. RobotOverlord525
          Link Parent
          Yeah, YouTube Premium has family plans. Every user has both YouTube Music and ad-free YouTube (video). My wife and daughter use YouTube a lot, too, so even though they eschew YouTube Music, they...

          Yeah, YouTube Premium has family plans. Every user has both YouTube Music and ad-free YouTube (video).

          My wife and daughter use YouTube a lot, too, so even though they eschew YouTube Music, they definitely make use of ad-free YouTube.

          We're paying US$23/month for it.

          3 votes
    3. [11]
      mattw2121
      Link Parent
      How is YouTube Music's recommendation engine? Is there anyway to export my liked songs from Spotify and import to YouTube Music?

      How is YouTube Music's recommendation engine? Is there anyway to export my liked songs from Spotify and import to YouTube Music?

      1. artvandelay
        Link Parent
        Recommendation engines on all platforms seem to vary from person to person but it's been great for me. For my "Supermix" it'll mix both new songs and songs already in my liked songs playlist which...

        Recommendation engines on all platforms seem to vary from person to person but it's been great for me. For my "Supermix" it'll mix both new songs and songs already in my liked songs playlist which I prefer. It always manages to pick songs I truly enjoy. I haven't had to downvote songs much.

        I'm not aware of any official way to import songs from Spotify to YouTube. I actually used a third party tool to do that. It managed to get ~90% of what I had on Spotify.

        6 votes
      2. [5]
        apolz
        Link Parent
        The YTM recommendation engine is better than Spotify in my opinion! It gets the genre right and actually recommends other songs I haven't heard in that genre. Spotify was always far too repetitive...

        The YTM recommendation engine is better than Spotify in my opinion! It gets the genre right and actually recommends other songs I haven't heard in that genre. Spotify was always far too repetitive for my taste.

        I wrote a Python script for myself and my wife to export playlists and songs to YTM. I can share that if you're knowledgeable about Python, otherwise you can try some online tools that do this for you.

        https://soundiiz.com/tutorial/spotify-to-youtube-music

        5 votes
        1. [2]
          bl1nk
          Link Parent
          I am interested in your script. I should be able to adapt it to my needs! Thanks in advance 🙂

          I am interested in your script. I should be able to adapt it to my needs!
          Thanks in advance 🙂

          1 vote
        2. [2]
          mattw2121
          Link Parent
          If you have a Python script, that would be great! Please feel free to DM me.

          If you have a Python script, that would be great! Please feel free to DM me.

          1 vote
      3. [3]
        Lapbunny
        Link Parent
        My radio basically always goes to September every time I try it. I mean, who doesn't like September? Right?? Me! After you play it for the fiftieth time when I want new music! Jesus christ. I...

        My radio basically always goes to September every time I try it. I mean, who doesn't like September? Right??

        Me! After you play it for the fiftieth time when I want new music! Jesus christ.

        I think I used some export service to get from Spotify to YTM. I keep considering switching back, but cloud hosting, ad-free YouTube, the ability to add YouTube videos to playlists, and this price hike poke me the opposite direction. The music suggestion algo is basically non-existent as far as I'm concerned, though. Really bugs me.

        2 votes
        1. Britimmer
          Link Parent
          My favorite song, according to my Spotify wrapped last year, was a song I basically just tolerate and it only got the top spot because the useless algorithm kept playing it despite my skipping it...

          My favorite song, according to my Spotify wrapped last year, was a song I basically just tolerate and it only got the top spot because the useless algorithm kept playing it despite my skipping it every time.

          I've added a few thousand songs to my main playlist. I hear 50 of them on repeat unless I manually seek out something different. With this price hike and the CEO's habit of putting money into the proverbial war machine, I'm look a lot harder at either YTP or even going back to Pandora.

          2 votes
        2. TheRtRevKaiser
          Link Parent
          That's pretty weird, because I listen to a lot of music on YouTube and I've been recommended all kinds of cool, weird bands. You'd think they would be able to use whatever secret sauce they have...

          That's pretty weird, because I listen to a lot of music on YouTube and I've been recommended all kinds of cool, weird bands. You'd think they would be able to use whatever secret sauce they have for video recommendations for music as well...

          1 vote
      4. Jedi
        Link Parent
        It used to be the only reason I used it over Google Play Music back when YouTube Music was video only. The recommendations were excellent. When they finally added the actual tracks instead of...

        It used to be the only reason I used it over Google Play Music back when YouTube Music was video only. The recommendations were excellent. When they finally added the actual tracks instead of being video-only I started opting for it most times instead of when I was just looking to discover music or play for crowds.

        It’s been a long time since I used Spotify, so I can’t really draw a fair comparison at this point, but I feel YouTube Musics reccs are really good.

        2 votes
    4. OBLIVIATER
      Link Parent
      I have a Youtube premium family plan with 5 friends, they haven't cracked down on it yet but there's been signs they may in the future.

      I have a Youtube premium family plan with 5 friends, they haven't cracked down on it yet but there's been signs they may in the future.

  3. cloud_loud
    (edited )
    Link
    I made this post last year due to their price increase last time. And I did in fact switch to Apple for two months after that post. I ended up switching back because looking up songs on Apple kind...

    I made this post last year due to their price increase last time. And I did in fact switch to Apple for two months after that post. I ended up switching back because looking up songs on Apple kind of sucked, though the algorithm for Apple was a lot better and gave me songs I hadn’t heard before.

    I still have the same problem though now the songs that get recommended a lot are Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter and Lunch by Billie Eillish. Spotify’s UX is just too good for me to give up though unfortunately.

    8 votes
  4. phoenixrises
    Link

    The Spotify Premium Individual plan is increasing by $1, from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, according to the company’s updated price listings. The Premium Family plan, which provides access for up to six members a household, is going up by $3, from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.

    4 votes