News Spotify’s price hikes and lack of HiFi make me want to own music again

[AC News]

Spotify Premium now costs $11.99 per month, making it more expensive than Apple Music and Tidal, despite having less features.

Spotify’s price hikes and lack of HiFi make me want to own music again : Read more

 

[cknobman]

I cancelled my paid subscription yesterday.
$20 after tax for 2 people is unacceptable.
I told them that their service is no longer worth the asking price.

I'll just suffer through commercials.

 

[Mooncatt]

I'm just still happily rocking out to Pandora. Lol

 

[bradavon]

This is following the same price hike Europe got a few weeks ago.

Spotify doesn't make it clear but there's also a new Basic Tier which IS Premium but without Audiobook for the same price.

So you don't have to pay the higher price. It took a few weeks here in The UK for the Basic Tier to become available.

I've already cancelled as Tidal with Lossless CD Quality for everything and Lossless High Res for a lot is a better service. I now use Pocket Casts for Podcasts and don't care about Audiobooks.

 

[Laura Knotek]

This is following the same price hike Europe got a few weeks ago.

Spotify doesn't make it clear but there's also a new Basic Tier which IS Premium but without Audiobook for the same price.

So you don't have to pay the higher price. It took a few weeks here in The UK for the Basic Tier to become available.

I've already cancelled as Tidal with Lossless CD Quality for everything and Lossless High Res for a lot is a better service. I now use Pocket Casts for Podcasts and don't care about Audiobooks.

I'll check that out. I don't listen to audiobooks or podcasts, so I only need Spotify for music.

 

[tube517]

Crazy but cassettes are experiencing a resurgence.

I am rebuilding my LP collection

 

[erikttuthill@gmail.com]

Seem's like Spotify has adopted the mentality that they have the superior service and people will pay whatever they ask. Spotify's integration with just about every device is wonderful, but to keep raising prices and STILL not have hi-fi is insulting.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Crazy but cassettes are experiencing a resurgence.

I am rebuilding my LP collection

I never got rid of my LPs and have continued to get more over the years. However, I haven't had cassettes or a cassette player for 35 years.

 

[PharmNerd]

Just gotta say... I absolutely adore PlexAmp.

 

[SeeBeeEss]

Maybe I am just too picky (or more likely, just too cheap ), but I was never able to find a streaming service that I liked well enough to pay what they were asking. I saved my entire CD collection to FLAC files and move them to/from my laptop, Sony Walkman or phone as the mood strikes. I might miss out on some great new music, but I also don't have to deal with the little quirks, big hassles and ridiculous music rental fees the streaming services all seemed to be pushing.

 

[tube517]

I never got rid of my LPs and have continued to get more over the years. However, I haven't had cassettes or a cassette player for 35 years.

I just bought one of those "suitcase" turntables off Woot. LOL. It does the job.

I had a nice stereo system but when I moved and moved and moved, they just got in the way and some components stopped working anyways.

I'll be shopping for some retro stereo components again.

 

[bradavon]

I'll check that out. I don't listen to audiobooks or podcasts, so I only need Spotify for music.

For me, when the price went up in The UK there was no Basic Tier but there is now, so it may take a few week like Europe to come online in North America.

You'll find it in your Account Settings though.

Cheekily I got an email to say my price was going up, but not to say the Basic Tier was online. I knew about it through Tech articles. The fact they'v called it Basic when it's still Premium tells me they don't really want us using it.

 

[bradavon]

I never got rid of my LPs and have continued to get more over the years. However, I haven't had cassettes or a cassette player for 35 years.

Vinyl, Super Audio CD, DVD and Blu-ray for me.

I got into Vinyl several years ago and back into SACD now I've got a Blu-ray Player that can play it again. Its a High Res audio format with the warmth of vinyl with the cleannes/no hassle of CD but you definitely go down a rabbit hole on Discogs as it's a format from the 2000s.

CDs offer me nothing any of the Losless music streaming services don't. HD on Blu-ray is a different beast to HD on Streaming platforms.

 

[bradavon]

Seem's like Spotify has adopted the mentality that they have the superior service and people will pay whatever they ask.

I think truth be told their business model doesn't equate to profit.

So they're throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it to try and be the audio service for everything to make profit.

Yes they make profit some months but not overall annually. 2/3 of the money they make goes straight to the three big record labels and the record labels hold all music streamers to ransom because imagine if that suddenly lost access to one of the big labels' music catalogues.

Apple and Amazon can afford for music streaming to be a loss leader, which it is, as they include it with services that make profit. Netflix throw a tonne of money into it's own content as it has full control over it, that's much harder to do with music.

I got fedup waiting for Lossless audio so have jumped ship to Tidal. I mostly listen via Wifi to my AV Receiver. If you only use Blueooth it's moot which audio service you use tbh, audio quality is the same. Pick the one you like.

 

[Village_Idiot]

Spotify and Pandora don't like people like me.

I ripped my entire CD collection (about 700+ worth) years ago, back before Yahoo bought (and then screwed up Music Match). As for vinyl LPs, I can rip them with my USB turntable. For new music, I get it via Amazon and I buy the song or album and download it. On the rare occasion that I get a CD, I rip it via Winamp.

I can then listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, and in the order I want.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Apple Music has lossless streaming. Some Verizon plans include it for no additional cost.

 

[p51d007]

All these streaming services raising their prices is just going to cause people to pirate more, or drop them, download their own content.

 

[me just saying]

users are being "nickel and dime" to the poor-house.