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Spotify is raising the cost of Premium subscriptions, again (www.engadget.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (9 children)

I pay about that already (~$14 a month), but for Napster, which afaik gives the biggest cut of any streaming service to artists. They also have really good custom playlist management, I never get intrusive popups or emails, and premium means no ads, even with hours of listening. I switched after the Joe Rogan thing happened with Spotify and never looked back honestly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Did you use a time machine to get here from 2002?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No actually! Napster bought Rhapsody and now runs a music streaming platform.

I get the reaction though lol. That was my reaction too when a friend of mine recommended it. But I tried it and it is actually really nice, and the price hasn't gone up in the years I have had it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. Do you ever run into music not available on it?

Also the price is currently cheaper than $14. Do you have the family plan?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I do have the family plan actually, I forgot about that!

And I do occasionally. Certain live albums and more niche stuff can be hard to find, and one hit wonders can be tricky depending on the genre and time the song is from. The song I'm Blue by Eiffel 65 is only available in a longer club mix and not the radio edit, for example.

I will say that, in my experience, it has a slightly larger selection than Spotify for classic stuff and different versions of the same song (covers, remakes, remixes, etc). For example, my husband was very excited that they had the whole readout of How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Boris Karloff (in two parts, but still) because they used to play it on certain radio stations every year around Christmas. On Spotify I was only ever able to find the same version of the song from several different albums of Christmas mixes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for this! I will consider my options. I remember when Spotify was $7 a month. it was easy to justify then, less so each time they hike the price.

How long have you been a Napster subscriber?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Two or three years, I think. So far the price has stayed exactly the same, they still have no ads, and they haven't made any changes to the app to try to advertise features or anything like that. It was (and still is) a nice change from Spotify, Apple Music, and even YouTube to be honest.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Thanks for all the info!

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