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.

  • AnxiousDuck@feddit.itEnglish
    12·
    6 months ago

    Is there a (possibly libre) way to maintain a structured music library not tied to a streaming service??

    I would happily leave but I fear for my huge library of artists and albums that I have discovered…

    • Dry_Monk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      6 months ago

      It’s not easy, fast, or free, but it is worth it. I currently still have a Spotify account, but I’m weaning myself off. I’ve been going the Bandcamp + jellyfin route. Buy an album a month (about the price of monthly streaming) and add it to my personal library. Next month, check what I’ve been listening to most on Spotify and buy that. It’s twice as expensive (for now) but I’m supporting artists more directly and have an exit strategy for Spotify. Curious about other’s approaches!

      • UckyBon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        That’s great! Not sure where you live (because shipping), but a lot of artists (I listen to) have limited physical releases on Bandcamp. Sometimes it’s worth the extra few bucks. My digital collection is bigger tho.

        So I actually do spend more on musicians than only streaming services CEO people. There is of course the ecological aspect of the production of the physical releases, but I don’t drive nor eat meat. I’d buy their stuff at a concert too.

        I use Slsk for my other needs.

    • Ace! _SL/S@ani.socialEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      That’s what I do

      Get my Music from different sources (most streaming services can be downloaded from) and then tag them with MusicBrainz Picard. Sorts them neatly, gives them mostly way more metadata than any other streaming service and sometimes I tag them by myself

      Currently using Symphony on android because it supports user defined artist metadata seperators (really wish more music apps would have that feature)

      On PC I’m using mpc and controll it mostly via cli

      • AnxiousDuck@feddit.itEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Yeah, I’ve come across MusicBrainz projects and they all seem really nice! I was thinking about organizing just the names and not the files, but might as well go that way sooner or later

    • jae@reddthat.comEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Didn’t see it mentioned, but I self host Navidrome. It’s great and open source. I get most my music from Bandcamp, or even rip CDs I check out from the library.