Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year With Premium, Duo, Family Plan Changes
www.billboard.com
Spotify will potentially pay songwriters about $150 million less in U.S. mechanical royalties next year after bundling its plans with audiobooks.

When Bloomberg reported that Spotify would be upping the cost of its premium subscription from $9.99 to $10.99, and including 15 hours of audiobooks per month in the U.S., the change sounded like a win for songwriters and publishers. Higher subscription prices typically equate to a bump in U.S. mechanical royalties — but not this time.

By adding audiobooks into Spotify’s premium tier, the streaming service now claims it qualifies to pay a discounted “bundle” rate to songwriters for premium streams, given Spotify now has to pay licensing for both books and music from the same price tag — which will only be a dollar higher than when music was the only premium offering. Additionally, Spotify will reclassify its duo and family subscription plans as bundles as well.

  • BURN@lemmy.worldEnglish
    282·
    7 months ago

    Definitely thinking about cancelling with this. I’ve used Spotify as long as I can remember, after finally switching over from pandora radio.

    Their shuffle and discovery algorithms suck so much now that it’s nearly impossible to listen to more than 20-30 songs they just keep repeating.

    Add on the extra, inserted ads in podcasts, there’s really no reason to continue to use their platform.

    Then again, I’m probably going to YT music, which is only marginally better, but since I pay for YT premium already there’s no additional cost

    • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      12·
      7 months ago

      I wish they had something between “top songs” and “completely random” when listening to a band.

      Like, sure, Sweet Child of Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, and Paradise City are great and all, but there’s only so often you can listen to them, and the only alternative is to be reminded that Chinese Democracy exists.

      • Sabin10@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        7 months ago

        YouTube music has something like this. You choose a few artists you like then tune the randomness of what it plays. I have discovered more new artists Ina few months of using it than I have in the decade before that.

    • huginn@feddit.itEnglish
      61·
      7 months ago

      If you find a better place to discover music please lmk (no sarcasm)

      Their discovery sucks lately and I hate it.

      • VieuxQuebEnglish
        4·
        7 months ago

        I like Tidal and rhey pay the most per play to artist’s.

        • NielsBohron@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          7 months ago

          I have tons of playlists and saved music on spotify; how is Tidal at importing data from other services? It’s not really a deal breaker, but I’m really picky about my music (so I don’t really care about “radio” features or curated playlists), so it’d be a real pain in the ass to start from scratch.

          • VieuxQuebEnglish
            2·
            7 months ago

            They have a feature to import your music from other sites…