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After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year (www.billboard.com)

submitted 6 months ago by fpslem@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

I've ditched Spotify last year when their app has suddenly started draining battery on my phone (and also because of them being so eager to give Rogan a platform). I've switched to Deezer, but I've ran into the same issue I've had with Spotify for a while - even if I download a playlist for offline usage, it'll still try to connect to the internet, so if I was somewhere with poor reception, it'd get stuck on a spinning circle for a minute before giving up and showing me the songs I've wanted to play. I ended my Deezer subscription, rebuilt the library on my laptop, and just manually transfer files to my phone. I get instant access to my music with no delays, with music players that offer much better experience and handle shuffle and queues the way I want to, and aren't a glorified Chrome tab on desktop. and if I really like an album, I'll just straight up buy one. I listen to music a fucking lot (two years ago i was in top 0.2% of my country's Spotify users), and according to some screenshots of my Spotify Wrapped, I've played my artists songs for 1200 minutes, which translates to 300-400 plays at best (probably less than that, given that many of their songs are around 6 to 8 minutes long). given that, from what I've found online, 1000 plays gives artists 4 bucks, I could just buy two of their songs on Bandcamp and pirate the rest of their music, and they'll still get more money in a year from me.

I do miss seamless playback switching between devices, though. it was a really nice Spotify feature... when it worked, that is.

[–] mihies@kbin.social 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

ve ran into the same issue I’ve had with Spotify for a while - even if I download a playlist for offline usage, it’ll still try to connect to the internet, so if I was somewhere with poor reception, it’d get stuck on a spinning circle for a minute before giving up and showing me the songs I’ve wanted to play.

That's by design and all streaming apps would do it like that to enforce abuse prevention.
Edit: added word at the end

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

thing is, it didn't do that in the past, or at least it wouldn't be that noticeable to me. but some time ago Spotify introduced a feature that would automatically add "smart" suggestions to the playlist, and it makes sense it requires network access for that. what doesn't make sense is that it still wants the connection even when I kept that feature disabled.

[–] mihies@kbin.social 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Probably it wasn't noticeable. Imagine this scenario: somebody would pay a monthly fee, would download "entire" Spotify and then forever listen to it in offline mode. And since it's offline, artists won't get payed as well.

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

then I dunno, maybe require periodic (e.g. monthly) checks to verify that I've been paying for a subscription, instead of punishing me for having the nerve to try viewing my library while I'm on an elevator?