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.

  • Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    More money More crap nobody wants like audio books Still haven’t seen cd quality streaming yet

    I used to happy with Spotify before the enshitificatuon happened…

      • Manalith@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        I have used Spotify’s 15 free hours a month for shorter light novels, but beyond that, buying the rights to listen to a book, or buying more listening hours is very much not worth it through them.

      • radicalautonomy@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I got Tidal for a month to try it out because I had gotten some XM4s and wanted to check out the 360 Reality Audio tracks, and I was disappointed to find just how few of them there actually are. 😕

        Edit: I see not that they did away with that ultra premium tier and folded those 360 Reality Audio tracks into the regular plans…they really did make it cheaper. Looks like I’m switching back to Tidal.

  • 3volver@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The problem is that creators aren’t getting paid their fair share, and these platforms leech off of their creativity. I hate to be “that guy”, but this is where NFTs actually have a use case. Give power directly to the creators of their music by allowing them sell directly to fans. This gives power to the creators and to the listeners who own the NFT. Embracing new technology is a way to break beyond corporate enshittification. We must break past “you will own nothing and be happy” and it seems like blockchain is one of the only ways to do it technologically.

    • mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      Why not just use Bandcamp? Even with nfts someone has to maintain the CDN. Alternatively, run your own site.

      • ExperiencedWinter@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Because then they wouldn’t be able to evangelize NFTs. You see this constantly with crypto/NFT tech, a solution in search of a problem

        • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Blockchain is used for Xbox royalties.

          The problem is that legacy rights holder (the middlemen) have no incentive to use blockchain to cut themselves out. They have the legal high ground and are not going to give it up.

          • ExperiencedWinter@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Right, and blockchain/NFT have nothing to do with that problem. Xbox could have implemented the exact same program without a blockchain, they just wanted the buzzword in the headline.

            • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              “By implementing a blockchain-based network and streamlined royalty processing, game publishers and Xbox benefit from a more trusted, transparent and connected system from contract creation through to royalty settlements”

              Trust is the key ingredient added by blockchain. Traditional databases couldn’t be trusted to be honest.

              • ExperiencedWinter@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                If a game developer can’t trust the platform you’re developing for, you probably should look to find better business partners.

    • DinkleDorph@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      People have a negative image of NFTs because of the speculation and early (crappy) implementations of the technology. It’s just a technology. I think web3 will be the answer to a lot of the corporate enshittification issues we see today. Community owned and operated networks and organizations are the future.

  • AhismaMiasma@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Got the email of subscription increase, just cancelled.

    Been trialling Tidal and we’re both pretty happy with it. Integrates almost as well as Spotify with Android Auto and the sound quality is far better.

    • LycanGalen@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Take a look at Deezer, too. It’s what I went with because it offers high fidelity FLAC audio for paid subscriptions, and integrates with Google home voice commands, which Tidal didn’t when I was looking.

      • killabeezio@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        I went with deezer for this reason as well. But deezer has gotten really bad and the interface is just God awful. I recently moved over to tidal and love it. It’s way better than deezer at this point

        • LycanGalen@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I haven’t had any issues with it personally (not invalidating your experience) What has gotten bad about it?

          • killabeezio@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            Had issues downloading for offline. Recommendations are meh. Sometimes I can’t search. Sometimes the app won’t load when on cell data.

            I never had issues like those before and then all of the sudden, it’s not even usable. I get having bad cell coverage somewhere, but I would have a strong signal and it will still do it. I had to uninstall and reinstall the app multiple times for it to work.

            Tidal is now cheaper and it has everything I would listen to. Before they were missing some bands and deezer had them. Doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

    • Grilipper54@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I might make the move to tidal as well, I just have a crazy big playlist though on Spotify that would be sad to lose.

      • GbyBE@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 months ago

        When you create a tidal account they tell you how to transfer your playlists automatically via a 3rd party service (Limited to 500 tracks, unless you pay). Qobuz does the same, but if I’m not mistaken actually partners with the 3rd party service to offer it for free without the 500 track limit.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    Quality isn’t good enough to justify the price. Apple Music and Tidal have better quality of sound.

    • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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      5 months ago

      even apart from audio quality, Spotify is just plain terrible as a music library.

      For someone who lives in playlists, it might be fine. But I like to pick and choose albums, sometimes even, songs, and be able to navigate it different ways. Spotify, and unfortunately a whole bunch of the competition, will have three separate lists for “liked” songs, albums, and artists. Only want to save the studio tracks, and not the demos and live versions? Fuck you, it’s all or nothing! And the special edition is the only version we have! enjoy the solid hour of shittier versions of the songs you actually wanted!

  • Caesium@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I gotta start direct downloading my music again soon. Spotify has just left me feeling so frustrated lately.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.caOP
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      5 months ago

      I’ve emailed support thrice for intrusive full screen ads. “these are promotions”. Yeah, ads… “Sorry you don’t like our promotions, we will note it”

      Uh huh.

  • Magzmak@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I wish they allowed more audiobook time per month, so one could finish a book past 11hrs. I’d be fine with an extra buck or two for a combined audiobook/music streaming service.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      5 months ago

      Just your local library for Libby or other electronic access. You probably have access to borrow audiobooks online for free. (assuming the US)

      • militant_spider@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Unfortunately, Spotify has it set where there doesn’t appear to be a limitation on how many people can listen at once, whereas Libby still only has so many copies to share.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You… Are kidding right?

      You would have to be living under a proverbial rock to have no inkling that Spotify is a product still in use, or be willfully ignorant.

      It’s like saying:

      • People still use Google?
      • People still drive cars?
      • People still use Windows?
      • People still go to churches?

      …etc

      Not that I agree that we should use Spotify. But playing pretend that they are small, irrelevant, and have no effect on the industry they are in isn’t doing us any favors when it comes to pushing back against it.

        • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Ah yes, you know so many people that it somehow becomes equivalent to a healthy sample size of the entire human population. Got it.

        • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          fails to see reality

          Reality is shown to them

          Doubles down on their ignorance of reality

          This thread is a textbook example of:

          Don’t argue with morons. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

          Instead of actually arguing the topic at hand you are trying to drag all repliers down to your level, act in bad faith, and beat them with personal attacks 🤣

          Classic.

    • kworpy@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      literally just get audio files of whatever you wanna listen to and plop it on funkwhale

  • 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Then the rest follow. If Apple music hike their price again, time to dust off my eye patch. Ive already cancelled all my streaming and went with plex, radarr, sonarr.

    • Norgur@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      Life hack: get Plexamp and Lidarr with Lidarr extended scripts. Then sign up for a free month of tidal with a throwaway account. Add said account to Lidarr extended. Add all the artists you want to Lidarr and let Lidarr Extended download all the stuff from Tidal for you. Once it has run out, register with another throwaway adress.

      • yeehaw@lemmy.caOP
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        5 months ago

        Basically doing this already but my only issue is discovery. That’s why I pay for Spotify. I used to have a script set up before the API closed that would run automatically monthly to snag all my liked songs.

        • Norgur@fedia.io
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          5 months ago

          There are cool projects for that on lidarr, or you use things like last.fm. Lidarr extended does have a feature to grab similar artists to the ones you have, leads to much bloat in a very short amount of time, of course.

      • 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Thanks mate. Will definitely look at lidar. Maybe its time, some music like doom eternal arent available in apple music and this might push me.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        Does this work with any other services like spotify? I know Tidal is lossless but I already have Spotify and Lidarr.

        • Norgur@fedia.io
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          5 months ago

          No, it works on Tidal and Deezer. Yet, since the throwaway account is free… :P Lidarr can import spotify playlists and fetch the tracks themselves from somewhere else though

      • 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Music streaming the only one i cant be bothered with since i have family plan with my gf plus discovering new music and new album from fav artist is too much to pass on.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      5 months ago

      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.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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        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.

      • SadSadSatellite @lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        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

          • RoosterBoy@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

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

            • Neato@ttrpg.network
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              5 months ago

              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?

      • veee@lemmy.ca
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        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.

      • yeehaw@lemmy.caOP
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        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.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’m all for pirating, but tbh music streaming apps are a service that is still in the “worth it” range. Not where Spotify is going, but, maintaining a library of high quality music with all the assets, and serving it to all your devices over the Internet is not a small feat to do securely.

      I’ll probably switch to tidal for now while I start building up my library to include stuff beyond what I like…

      • PixelAlchemist@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        You should check out Plexamp while you bridge the gap. It has tidal support built in, and you can self-host your own collection as you build it up. Then when you’re done with tidal, you don’t have to learn or download a new app.

        • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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          5 months ago

          There is no point to self hosting music streaming in my opinion.

          Just have syncthing sync your music folder on your SD card to your server. Everything local and available when you want it.

          Plex is slowly being enshittified too it seems, just slower.

            • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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              5 months ago

              I do for all my video needs, but the music streaming on jellyfin is nowhere near as nice as plexamp.

              Just syncing all of your files locally is far superior to either unless your library is like >250GB.

              Streaming is a different use case than playing your own music which is essentially what plexamp and jellyamp are doing with extra steps. There are much better local music players than either option.

            • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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              5 months ago

              I do, but the music streaming on jellyfin is nowhere near as nice as plexamp.

              Just syncing all of your files locally is far superior to either unless your library is like >250GB.

              Streaming is a different use case than playing your own music which is essentially what plexamp and jellyamp are doing with extra steps. There are much better local music players than either option.

            • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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              5 months ago

              I do for all my video needs, but the music streaming on jellyfin is nowhere near as nice as plexamp.

              Just syncing all of your files locally is far superior to either unless your library is like >250GB.

              Streaming is a different use case than playing your own music which is essentially what plexamp and jellyamp are doing with extra steps. There are much better local music players than either option.

          • Norgur@fedia.io
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            5 months ago

            Since all music services I’ve tried so far are laughably shit at that anyway, Last.fm is your friend. Besides, Plexamp tries to get you into a Tidal subscription and suggests things from there, so you’ll get stuff here nad there.

        • li10@feddit.uk
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          5 months ago

          Done. Until it can’t find a decent quality option for an album you’re searching for.

          A guy I know decided to move away from Spotify and pirate music. The amount of effort he went through means it’s something I’ll probably never try.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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            5 months ago

            This is the biggest problem for me. I have thousands of movies and 10s of thousands of TV episodes, but my audio library is still all the same stuff I downloaded from Napster, Limewire, Kazaa 20+ years ago. It’s too hard to find a good selection these days outside of a few private trackers. I’m in several private trackers but I’m not going to sit in a queue for 2 days waiting for an interview time and jump through hoops to join something like RED or PTP tier tracker.

            Not to mention I mostly listen to podcasts these days and when I do listen to music, I try to find new stuff that I’ve never heard of rather than searching for a known artist. This would be way too convoluted to do on my own with some self-hosted solution.

            • PixelAlchemist@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I’ve been using deemix, and for the most part it’s been pretty seamless. Stuff direct downloads instantly, but it’s all in 128kbps now unfortunately. Then I have lidarr monitor everything for a lossless version.

              • DjMeas@lemm.ee
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                5 months ago

                Are you saying Deemix only downloads at 128kbps? If so, I’ve been using it as well and download in FLAC. Also, I pay for the family plan which is $15.99/month.

                Edit: Ah, I’m guessing you’re not on a paid Deezer plan.

                • PixelAlchemist@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Yeah I’m on the free plan which used to include FLAC and 320kpbs, but they stopped doing that for free plans about a year ago I think.

        • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Just some perspective: I’ve been self-hosting stuff for 7y now, started with plex on a nas. I have tried a couple times to get the *arr stack working, one at a time and fuck me it’s complex and the risk of fucking up the config and data crossing the clearnet without a VPN, noooope fuck right off with that. That risk/reward just is too skewed for me.

    • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I use a cracked Spotify client but if I do legitimately pay, it will be for Tidal. I want that sweet sweet lossless audio people have been talking about.

    • vividspecter@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I’ll add the old school method of scrobbling to last.fm for discovery still works pretty well too, and you can play music directly there now using Youtube (probably been there for years I assume). Just found some pretty obscure stuff that isn’t even available on the mainstream streaming services, so that’s a win.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        5 months ago

        I forgot last.fm existed. I sort of used them years ago.

        They did not handle separate artists with the same name gracefully at all. The page for a riot-grrl adjacent band and an Australian rapper (?) got merged and the fans were going at it on the page.

        Looks like it’s still kind of a problem

  • jpeps@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    For anyone who hasn’t checked their Spotify subscription for a while, I recently discovered a new basic tier created underneath the premium one that is a little cheaper simply by not including the ‘free’ 15 hours of audiobooks. I’ve never used it and don’t intend to. YMMV.

      • jpeps@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah! It’s ‘premium’ in all ways except that audiobook offer. Prettttyyyy shitty behaviour from them.

  • LCP@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I don’t mind paying $10/mo for access to millions of songs on demand, even if the caveat is that I don’t own anything at the end of my subscription.

    I understand costs have gone up, so I can accept a $1 increase in subscription. The problem is that Spotify wants to do a bunch of side projects at my expense. I have no interest in podcasts or audiobooks yet I must fork up the extra money to fund it. I have no say in what my money is being used for and I hate that.

    It’s why I moved from it to Tidal and then to Apple Music (even though I’m on Android). Both have their own issues but at least they’re focused on music.

    • exanime@lemmy.today
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      5 months ago

      Hope you like Joe Rogan and the crap he peddles because he is getting a nice chunk of Spotify money… I left because of that particular deal

    • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      The problem is that Spotify is losing money each year. They aren’t profitable. And if they are keep focusing on music, they never will. Their deal with the music labels says that they need to give 70 % of each subscription to the music labels. So by getting more people to signup, they only marginally increase their revenue. Some goes for raising their prices.

      Thats why they tried focusing on Podcasts and Audiobooks. Those are a lot more profitable, either by adding ads (Podcasts) or by charging a premium (audiobooks).

      • kwirky@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        It’s amazing to think how incompetent their management must be that they’re charging more, delivering lower audio quality, and paying less to artists than competitors like Tidal, yet still aren’t profitable.

        • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          They pay less than Tidal claims it pays. So far Tidal has a really bad history of publishing correct numbers.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Hang on. 70% of the subscription before any royalty / streaming costs?

        So in a $10 payment, $7 is immediately removed, then another say $1 for streaming costs leaving only $2 for profits which Spotify takes 30%?

        From each $10 only $1.40 goes to artists?

        • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          From the 10 Dollar, taxes will be deducted. Afterwards Apple or Google take their share (if you subscribe using the App). Of the remaining money the Music labels take 70 %, and Spotify keeps 30 %. The music labels pay a fraction of the 70 % to the artists, depending on the contract and the artist’s share of streams reported by Spotify.

      • LCP@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Interesting. I wasn’t aware that they weren’t profitable.

        Funny enough, right after your comment I got recommended this video on YouTube talking about the points you mentioned: https://youtu.be/yDWgOwb8kj4

      • Spedwell@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        There is an episode of Tech Won’t Save Us (2024-01-25) discussing how weird the podcasting play was for Spotify. There is essentially no way to monetize podcasts at scale, primarily because podcasts do not have the same degree of platform look-in as other media types.

        Spotify spent the $100 million (or whatever the number was) to get Rogan exclusive, but for essentially every other podcast you can find a free RSS feed with skippable ads. Also their podcast player just outright sucks :/

    • Manalith@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      Any particular reason you went from Tidal to Apple Music? I see a lot of people here recommending it, so I’d be interested to hear any negatives it has.