Spotify plans to raise prices this year and introduce new plans
www.gsmarena.com
Last year's price hike worked out very well for the company, so why not do it again? Spotify is preparing a revamp of its plans and prices, according to a...
  • Marud@lemmy.marud.fr
    51·
    9 months ago

    Spotify has plans to raise prices and still no plan to pay normally the artists the platform lives on.

      • Marud@lemmy.marud.fr
        132·
        9 months ago

        ⢰⣶⣶⣤⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⢻⣿⣿⡏⠉⠓⠦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⣀⣀ ⠀⠀⢹⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⠲⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣠⡴⠖⢾⣿⣿⣿⡟ ⠀⠀⠀⠹⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⣤⠶⠚⠋⠁⠀⠀⣸⣿⣿⡟⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠹⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠓⢦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⡴⠖⠋⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⢦⡀⠀⠀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⠀⣀⡤⠖⠋⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⡿⠃⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠉⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣰⡟⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⢦⡀⠀⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡴⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠻⣦⣠⡿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⡄⠀⠀⢀⡴⠟⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⠟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣦⠾⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣴⣶⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⡴⣶⣦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠹⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣯⣀⣼⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣄⣬⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣼⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠻⣿⡿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⠿⠿⠟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡇⠀⢀⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⣷⣶⠤⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢿⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⢁⡾⠋⠉⠉⠙⢷⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣴⠞⠋⠉⠛⢶⡄⠀⠀⠘⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⠸⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⠇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣠⠤⠴⠶⠶⣤⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡇⠀⠀⠀⢿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⠀⠉⠳⠶⠶⠞⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢾⡅⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠷⢦⡤⠴⠛⠁⠀⠀⠀⢸⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠻⣤⡀⠀⠀⣠⠟⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣇⣀⣀⣀⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣄⣄⣄⣄⣄⣠⣀⣀⣀⣀⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣼⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

        • MagicShel@programming.dev
          9·
          9 months ago

          Viewed in portrait mode, that looks like a man giving a toast holding a Champaign flute. Also ironically appropriate.

          • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
            3·
            9 months ago

            On mobile as well, and it looks like a complete mess. Image captions seem even more important when it comes to ASCII art, hopefully those become a bit more normalized at some point.

    • Marud@lemmy.marud.fr
      11·
      9 months ago

      btw I’ve set up my own audiobookshelf server a few months ago for my audiobooks and podcasts. Being able to start something on my phone and keep tracking of my listening then switch on my computer to continue is pure gold. It’s what I was looking for for ages.

      • renard_roux@beehaw.org
        2·
        9 months ago

        I tried setting up Audiobookshelf in Podman on my ancient Mac mini recently (now running Fedora x KDE), and turns out I don’t know the first thing about running “dockered” servers/apps and absolutely couldn’t get it to work 😅

          • renard_roux@beehaw.org
            1·
            9 months ago

            Thank you! I may just take you up on that, but think I need to read some how-to’s first 😁

            I’ll see if I can’t figure it out, think it’s mostly a question of lacking available time to get into it properly 👌

  • sunbunman@lemm.eeEnglish
    40·
    9 months ago

    Just a heads up to everyone, quitting Spotify and buying / “procuring” your own music and playing it via a music player makes reading this quite cathartic. Do it for the moral superiority and self esteem boost for no effort you come to the internet for anyways.

      • sunbunman@lemm.eeEnglish
        29·
        9 months ago

        There’s quite a few ways actually:

        • Bandcamp (preferred)
        • just google it
        • Artist’s official website
        • contact artist via social media

        If none of the above has worked, this is no longer an issue about whether you want to pay for the product or not, it’s a supplier problem.

          • sunbunman@lemm.eeEnglish
            8·
            9 months ago

            Bandcamp is good for indie artists and if you want to discover new artists. I’ve found quite a few diamonds in the rough on there. A surprising amount of metal / punk artists sell via Bandcamp if you’re into that.

            How is 'just Google it" not a valid option? This is literally how you can find 99% of all problems about the internet especially for finding where to legally buy digital products within the first few websites. You know what is good for business when you’re trying to sell a product? Making sure its one of the first few, if not the first choice the customer gets when looking at the default search engine.

            Moving on from that I’m guessing getting in contact with the artist is not an option? Y’know the other 2 points?

        • avatar@lemm.ee
          4·
          9 months ago

          Can I play devil’s advocate a little bit here, because I was really unaware that this ever worked for anything except indie artists on Bandcamp. So Bandcamp works for them or for discovering new music obviously.

          I didn’t know artists ever sold digital music on their websites, but that does make sense, so I checked - if I google Taylor Swift and go to her website, there it is, digital music purchase. Great.

          I went to U2’s website, and the only music I can buy there is vinyl. I don’t want vinyl, I want digital. You can buy merch, but I’m after music, not merch. Looking further, there’s all sorts of galleries and information about each album and song, but you still can’t buy the music.

          Other mainstream artists I googled didn’t even go that far. Googling them brought up a wikipedia link, social media links, tours. All stuff I don’t want. Now your list has “contact artist via social media” - setting aside the fact that it’s unlikely a popular mainstream artist will even reply to anyone at all about anything, this is a real point of friction. I don’t want to have to contact an artist to find out some alternative way to get their music. If I’m buying something online, there needs to be some way to buy it online and ready to go. If we have to wait a couple of days or weeks for a reply that may or may not come - the process failed.

          If I had to guess, they would probably say something like “it’s on spotify”.

          So yes it probably is a supplier problem, but it seems to me that this is happening for the majority of popular artists if a majority of music people like is mainstream. I assume if you like the majority of indie music then that’s probably not the case.

          • sunbunman@lemm.eeEnglish
            4·
            9 months ago

            No worries, I’ll take your U2 example and try it from my end (I don’t listen to them so I can’t decide on what album(s) specifically you are looking for). I’m going to be frank, it was a pain, but I did find zdigital (7digital outside of Australia) selling their albums without physical media. But getting there, I had to see that the U2 website/publisher website did not even advertise it. It was like the 5th option on duckduckgo after searching for

            u2 digital download

            I’m sure you would have better luck if you slide in the specific album that you were looking for.

            Important to note is that you aren’t googling for that artist or album, you’re googling

            artist album digital download

            I do agree with you that mainstream artists and publishers are going down this route probably due to some deals with streaming services, but unfortunately that is the reality we live in now. Additional work will be required by the consumer to get what they want. If the publishers start completely stopping this at some point all I can say is that I have the disposable income to buy the products I want and I am going to get it. Whether the publishers sell it to me or not is their decision to make.

          • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
            2·
            9 months ago

            I suspect that big artists are making so much from streaming that they’re not concerned with direct to consumer. And that’s fine because they are the easiest to torrent.

            Bandcamp or whatever downloads website for small and torrent for big.

        • Flit@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          Also, when it comes to specific platforms, Apple Music is quite good, though they make it rather painful to buy music if you use Linux

          • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de
            5·
            9 months ago

            It is to be noted that while iTunes is DRM-free at this point (which is very nice and surprised me when I found out) it is unfortunately still lossy compressed audio which the perfectionist in me really doesn’t like :P

            Come on Apple, sell me your funny ALAC, you have it for Apple Music anyway

            • averyminya@beehaw.org
              3·
              9 months ago

              It is now? That’s cool Would have been nice to not have lost my entire childhood library because it was locked behind iTunes.

            • Flit@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              9 months ago

              Oh, I wasn’t aware of that. It doesn’t bother me that much, since I personally can’t tell the difference in audio quality, but that’s still unfortunate to know

    • datavoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
      51·
      9 months ago

      I feel like piracy and moral superiority don’t really belong together

      • FippleStone@aussie.zone
        14·
        9 months ago

        You are clearly not aware of the windfall profits corporations are making, and that they are then passing exactly none of it on to the workers generating that profit

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
        11·
        9 months ago

        Yeah the moral thing to do is pay a third party company $130 per year who then pays an artist $0.20 per billion streams of their work.

        • datavoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          I mean the moral thing is just to not buy the product if you have an issue with it.

          I have no problem with piracy, but pretending you’re some sort of hero for doing it is ridiculous

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
            2·
            9 months ago

            How is that the moral avenue? You want these artists to fade into obscurity because nobody can ever hear their music while also not earning any money?

            • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
              3·
              9 months ago

              Not saying Bandcamp are the good guys but at least you have an option. And today is Bandcamp Friday, when artists keep 100% of the sales!

              We run our Navidrome server at home and listen to our music using clients such as Feishin and Tempo (Android).

      • sunbunman@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        9 months ago

        I always try to buy my music first, digital only though. I don’t have space for CDs or the like. If the option is not available (not common), the tricorn goes on. And normally I would go through any loophole I can find to get it legally. But damn, the Japanese really don’t like doing business with foreigners.

  • Zworf@beehaw.org
    23·
    9 months ago

    I’d take a lower-priced plan with limited listening time. They’re getting too expensive for the few hours a month I use it. If they bump it up more I will quit for sure.

    The only reason I still use them is the qt-spotify third party client. None of the other services work on my OS (they all need DRM on the browser or other nastiness I don’t have).

      • darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org
        5·
        9 months ago

        Why? Streaming has become a scam and everyone seems okay with it. Like everything online. Everything is an expensive subscription to rent entertainment. My suggestion? Buy CDs. Buy directly from the artists. Or pirate it, at least Spotify won’t make any money from it.

        • PenguinCoder@beehaw.orgEnglish
          6·
          9 months ago

          at least Spotify won’t make any money from it.

          And the artists still won’t. So given in either case, the artist don’t make squat; using Spotify is easier. So, use spotify.

            • PenguinCoder@beehaw.orgEnglish
              4·
              9 months ago

              When the suggestion is to pirate it, so spotify doesn’t get any money I don’t see how your follow-up comment matters. In either case of piracy, OR using spotify, the artist still doesn’t make money. Problem is that piracy comes with a lot more hoops and headaches.

              Of course, buying the artist CD or songs directly is much preferable to either.

        • gerryflap@feddit.nl
          1·
          9 months ago

          How is Spotify a scam? I can probably at most buy one CD per month for the same price as Spotify. Yet Spotify gives unlimited access to good quality versions of almost every song out there. Even with raised prices it’s still a way better deal for most consumers than buying music directly.

          Personally I tend to also buy a few albums a year, because I like owning them and I like supporting the artists. But the convenience of having every track at your fingertips is hard to beat

          • darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org
            1·
            9 months ago

            It’s a scam for artists. They make a pittance. Meanwhile, Spotify is raking it in. It may be an amazing deal for you, but musicians are making nothing from it.

          • beefcat@beehaw.org
            1·
            8 months ago

            that is why spotify is a scam. it may be a good deal for you, the consumer, but it has made it even harder for artists to make money off their work.

    • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
      3·
      9 months ago

      Especially if you are a musician. Musicians need to boycott it. 99.9999% of musicians wouldn’t even notice if they weren’t on it but it would destroy Spotify.

  • sadreality@kbin.social
    16·
    9 months ago

    Y’all keeping paying, they keep raising prices… there is a solution but nobody can figure out what tit is!

  • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
    8·
    9 months ago

    I call on all small artists to boycott Spotify.

    You will make no money on it but they depend on you for their business.

    Do not perpetuate or support the continued impoverishment and humiliation of musicians and the degradation of artistic culture.

    • itsralC@lemm.ee
      3·
      9 months ago

      How will small artists get to make themselves known, though? Not everyone has the option to play live.

  • ryan213
    7·
    9 months ago

    Can someone recommend kid/family friendly alternative? Is Tidal easy to use/navigate?

    • IbnLemmy@feddit.uk
      10·
      9 months ago

      If the raise prices too much I’m going to finalise my plan to move to YouTube Music family plan. Additional bonus will be no more adds on YouTube.

      Don’t fall for this self hosting stuff. It’s well meant and great for single tech enthusiasts, but with family, you won’t have enough time to do the required upkeep and the whinning you will here from dependents when stuff goes wrong isn’t worth it.

      • Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
        3·
        9 months ago

        You can try NewPipe, which is free. IIRC I downloaded it from F-Droid. Maybe someone else can reply and confirm that’s the best place to get it.

        • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          You can also get the APK from their GH. Great app, doesn’t solve the family support problem though, and I’m not sure that it works on Apple devices.

    • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.alOP
      9·
      9 months ago

      They’re all pretty straight forward and Tidal has a better record of crediting and paying artists than Spotify. But ultimately, I would suggest self hosting.

        • machinaeZER0@lemm.eeEnglish
          14·
          9 months ago

          I often buy albums on Bandcamp and supposedly artists get a good cut of that. They have an app too, so you can stream content from there (or self host the files you get when you buy)

        • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.alOP
          12·
          9 months ago

          The revenue from streaming services always pales in comparison to buying the music directly from an artist. The streaming model has been hijacked by record labels who take the majority share, such are the deals they force artists to sign.

          • Sonori@beehaw.org
            10·
            9 months ago

            A decent number of artists offer digital downloads of their music directly either for a flat fee or in a pay what you wish system.

            It is nowhere near as convenient unfortunately. Benn Jordan mentions some options in several of their videos about their experience with Spotify, but i’m admittedly not certain I just linked the right one.

      • comicallycluttered@beehaw.org
        2·
        9 months ago

        Works fine on Android as well (which is weird considering how bad Apple software can be on non-Apple devices). Just need to create an Apple ID and you’re set.

        Testing out the trial right now and it’s pretty great so far.

        UI is way better than Spotify as well (IMO), plus lossless for the same price as current Spotify Premium. (And it also has a max cache size limit option, so even playing a shit ton of lossless isn’t going to eat up more space than what you select.)

        Getting my fucking Spotify library and playlists I’ve built over the years on here is going to be a long nightmare, though.

      • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        9 months ago

        The Music client for Mac is still an excellent music manager and player and beats Spotify by a mile despite how visibly much they’ve let it bitrot* since it was iTunes. It’s a shame neither the mobile app nor the web client has anywhere near the capabilities.

        * for example, what the fuck is that stupid unresizable header that takes up half the window with mostly empty space and doesn’t scroll off the screen anymore if you set a playlist view to “as Songs”

    • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
      1·
      9 months ago

      I buy sometimes buy downloads on Qobuz but they also have a streaming subscription. I’ve been able to find most non-obscure music on their site.

  • bobotron@lemm.ee
    6·
    9 months ago

    Doesn’t seem so bad, if you don’t want the price hike just change your plan to not include audiobooks. A little scummy that you need to opt out but not the worst.

  • robotdna@toast.oooEnglish
    6·
    9 months ago

    I’ll believe it when I see it- Spotify lossless was announced years ago. I don’t believe them.

  • Romanmir@lemmy.todayEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    Hmm, I use Spotify to stream a wake up mix (approved by my SO,) to an Amazon Echo via Home Assistant. Currently, I know of no way to stream arbitrary music files to an Echo. And I know of no consumer grade device that can accept the command to “Shut your cake hole” when we’re tired of listening to stuff while being compatible with HA. This is … inconvenient.