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I got asked to do a survey when I opened the Spotify app last week. All the questions were of a "What would you do if this price rise happened?" and most of the

I got asked to do a survey when I opened the Spotify app last week. All the questions were of a "What would you do if this price rise happened?" and most of the varieties had the family plan going to £20.99. I don't know what they are smoking to think that they're worth more than a Netflix subscription. Video > audio. If they put the family plan price up I'll cancel it and use Prime Music or something.

halgir 4y ago
> Video > audio I get what you mean, but I wouldn't accept that as a universal truth. I spend considerably more time listening to music on Spotify than I do watching video on Netflix. The content I consume on Netflix may have cost more to produce, but the content I consume on Spotify gives me subjectively more value.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
  I agree with you - music keeps me entertained all day, it has far more value to me. But isn't there an argument to be made that the infrastructure requirements for video is huge compared to music? The requirements to store and stream enough 4k video all day every day to satisfy millions of users is monstrous and that has to factor into the cost. I wouldn't expect streaming audio to be nearly that costly.
  - halgir 4y ago
    The only reason music streaming is so cheap is because it's a commodity. There's several multi-billion dollar corporations all competing with largely identical products. There's not much else than price to compete on. Video services compete on exclusive content, so they can make subjective value considerations around how valuable certain content is to certain groups.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      And, related is that there's a royalty/copyright structure in music that means those multi-billion dollar companies can stream almost anything they want for a known low dollar amount. There's also an almost infinite supply of good music--past and present--out there. There just isn't a lot of incentive for most audio streaming services to invest in exclusive content--the odd podcast notwithstanding.
- ghaff 4y ago
  If streaming got too expensive, I'd just buy more music now and then. I managed fine before streaming and I'd manage without it. But then I have a big library.
canucklady 4y ago
Spotify is dumping tons of resources into live streaming video podcasts, I guess they heard "people pay for videos" and didn't realize the video had to be good
jillesvangurp 4y ago
Netflix has been doing the same thing by cracking down on sharing of accounts between family members not living in the same house, etc. I'd probably sooner cancel Netflix or Amazon Prime than Spotify. I've actually been thinking about that lately because they seem to be putting out less nice content lately. I might just start subscription hopping for a while. Binge on a bunch of HBO things. Cancel that, move on to Prime, pay for a few months of Netflix, Apple TV, and so on. The issue is that none of them have enough quality content to keep me there permanently and they all have some content that is at least tempting. There are a couple of shows per year on each that I really enjoy and then just a lot of filler content that I don't really care as much about. I actually watch more free content on Youtube at this point then Netflix. There are a few alternatives to Spotify. I'd say Prime Music is probably the least polished of them. AWS for all their success as a retailer just never figured out how to do decent UX. Prime video is pretty bad for example. I've heard good things about Tidal and I kind of like their focus on artist revenue. But for now, I'm pretty happy with Spotify and the switching is not really worth the trouble to me. In terms of cost most of these things are pretty close together.
- halgir 4y ago
  > I might just start subscription hopping for a while. Aren't you worried about how this will look on your resume?
  - imchillyb 4y ago
    > I might just start subscription hopping for a while. >> Aren't you worried about how this will look on your resume? @halgir You jest, but this type of censorship is coming to a business near you in the very-near future.
- imchillyb 4y ago
  When Spotify threatened to cancel my account for sharing with my sister, I cancelled Spotify instead. Spotify removed password sharing first.
orra 4y ago
> I don't know what they are smoking to think that they're worth more than a Netflix subscription Don't worry, I am sure Netflix will put up their prices again.
wittycardio 4y ago
[dead]
wefarrell 4y ago
Netflix doesn't have all films and shows whereas Spotify has pretty much every song. For video I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney plus and Hulu but for music I only have Spotify.
- gadders 4y ago
  That's fair. Still not sure Spotify's worth £20/month though but I wouldn't describe myself as someone massively into music.
rchaud 4y ago
> Video > audio This is why they're now offering video and podcasts. They want to be valued the same way Netflix and YouTube are, and they can't do it with an audio-only offering.
twobitshifter 4y ago
SiriusXM costs from $18-$23/month for ad free streaming. That’s channels instead of on demand playback. The prices that are being asked for make me wish we just had a better successor to FM radio.
lucsky 4y ago
> I don't know what they are smoking to think that they're worth more than a Netflix subscription. Video > audio. Hard disagree, video streaming platforms are a gigantic hot mess where movies and shows constantly appear and expire, you never know where to look, if something is available or not anymore or for how long. Spotify and friends are constantly growing libraries, where everything is available, at all time, always (modulo the expected lawyer temper tantrums here and there). It boggles my mind how people can feel so entitled that they wouldn't accept paying a bit more for sixty million tracks available everywhere every time all the time. Spotify is a shit company, with garbage mobile and desktop clients, but the service is absolutely insanely cheap for what it is, I personally would gladly pay double and still be happy about it. They are worth way more than a stupid Netflix subscription in my book. Vastly.
soupfordummies 4y ago
I get what you're saying but I also want to clarify that an equivalent analogy would be if Netflix had nearly EVERY film/TV show that was ever released.
Terretta 4y ago
Apple One which includes Apple Music, family app sharing, family storage, and family privacy (essentially TOR for everyday browsing, except through a privacy preserving tango between Apple and CloudFlare) is a surprisingly good value relative to the standalone music offerings. https://www.apple.com/apple-one/ https://www.apple.com/apple-one/ Family is $22.95 a month, with 5 other people: - Apple Music - Apple TV+ - Apple Arcade - iCloud+ (with photos and video sharing, email/cal hosting with family domain name, hide my email, private browsing)
- rxyz 4y ago
  Apple Music is very clunky, much worse experience than spotify. I tried twice to switch. I would recommend paying a dollar for icloud+ and ignoring the rest.
  - Terretta 4y ago
    One is for people who like collecting music and discovering things you wouldn't have discovered. The other is for people who like radio, and hearing more things like the things they already like. They're only superficially the same, in fact they're wildly different. Each will be a "worse experience" if your preferred experience is the other.
plaidfuji 4y ago
> video > audio Agreed, but keep in mind this is “access to virtually all available audio” vs “access to one particular channel/library of video”

halgir 4y ago

> Video > audio I get what you mean, but I wouldn't accept that as a universal truth. I spend considerably more time listening to music on Spotify than I do watching video on Netflix. The content I consume on Netflix may have cost more to produce, but the content I consume on Spotify gives me subjectively more value.

SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
I agree with you - music keeps me entertained all day, it has far more value to me. But isn't there an argument to be made that the infrastructure requirements for video is huge compared to music? The requirements to store and stream enough 4k video all day every day to satisfy millions of users is monstrous and that has to factor into the cost. I wouldn't expect streaming audio to be nearly that costly.
- halgir 4y ago
  The only reason music streaming is so cheap is because it's a commodity. There's several multi-billion dollar corporations all competing with largely identical products. There's not much else than price to compete on. Video services compete on exclusive content, so they can make subjective value considerations around how valuable certain content is to certain groups.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    And, related is that there's a royalty/copyright structure in music that means those multi-billion dollar companies can stream almost anything they want for a known low dollar amount. There's also an almost infinite supply of good music--past and present--out there. There just isn't a lot of incentive for most audio streaming services to invest in exclusive content--the odd podcast notwithstanding.
ghaff 4y ago
If streaming got too expensive, I'd just buy more music now and then. I managed fine before streaming and I'd manage without it. But then I have a big library.

canucklady 4y ago

Spotify is dumping tons of resources into live streaming video podcasts, I guess they heard "people pay for videos" and didn't realize the video had to be good

jillesvangurp 4y ago

Netflix has been doing the same thing by cracking down on sharing of accounts between family members not living in the same house, etc. I'd probably sooner cancel Netflix or Amazon Prime than Spotify. I've actually been thinking about that lately because they seem to be putting out less nice content lately. I might just start subscription hopping for a while. Binge on a bunch of HBO things. Cancel that, move on to Prime, pay for a few months of Netflix, Apple TV, and so on. The issue is that none of them have enough quality content to keep me there permanently and they all have some content that is at least tempting. There are a couple of shows per year on each that I really enjoy and then just a lot of filler content that I don't really care as much about. I actually watch more free content on Youtube at this point then Netflix. There are a few alternatives to Spotify. I'd say Prime Music is probably the least polished of them. AWS for all their success as a retailer just never figured out how to do decent UX. Prime video is pretty bad for example. I've heard good things about Tidal and I kind of like their focus on artist revenue. But for now, I'm pretty happy with Spotify and the switching is not really worth the trouble to me. In terms of cost most of these things are pretty close together.

halgir 4y ago
> I might just start subscription hopping for a while. Aren't you worried about how this will look on your resume?
- imchillyb 4y ago
  > I might just start subscription hopping for a while. >> Aren't you worried about how this will look on your resume? @halgir You jest, but this type of censorship is coming to a business near you in the very-near future.
imchillyb 4y ago
When Spotify threatened to cancel my account for sharing with my sister, I cancelled Spotify instead. Spotify removed password sharing first.

orra 4y ago

> I don't know what they are smoking to think that they're worth more than a Netflix subscription Don't worry, I am sure Netflix will put up their prices again.

wittycardio 4y ago

[dead]

wefarrell 4y ago

Netflix doesn't have all films and shows whereas Spotify has pretty much every song. For video I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney plus and Hulu but for music I only have Spotify.

gadders 4y ago
That's fair. Still not sure Spotify's worth £20/month though but I wouldn't describe myself as someone massively into music.

rchaud 4y ago

> Video > audio This is why they're now offering video and podcasts. They want to be valued the same way Netflix and YouTube are, and they can't do it with an audio-only offering.

twobitshifter 4y ago

SiriusXM costs from $18-$23/month for ad free streaming. That’s channels instead of on demand playback. The prices that are being asked for make me wish we just had a better successor to FM radio.

lucsky 4y ago

> I don't know what they are smoking to think that they're worth more than a Netflix subscription. Video > audio. Hard disagree, video streaming platforms are a gigantic hot mess where movies and shows constantly appear and expire, you never know where to look, if something is available or not anymore or for how long. Spotify and friends are constantly growing libraries, where everything is available, at all time, always (modulo the expected lawyer temper tantrums here and there). It boggles my mind how people can feel so entitled that they wouldn't accept paying a bit more for sixty million tracks available everywhere every time all the time. Spotify is a shit company, with garbage mobile and desktop clients, but the service is absolutely insanely cheap for what it is, I personally would gladly pay double and still be happy about it. They are worth way more than a stupid Netflix subscription in my book. Vastly.

soupfordummies 4y ago

I get what you're saying but I also want to clarify that an equivalent analogy would be if Netflix had nearly EVERY film/TV show that was ever released.

Terretta 4y ago

Apple One which includes Apple Music, family app sharing, family storage, and family privacy (essentially TOR for everyday browsing, except through a privacy preserving tango between Apple and CloudFlare) is a surprisingly good value relative to the standalone music offerings. https://www.apple.com/apple-one/ https://www.apple.com/apple-one/ Family is $22.95 a month, with 5 other people: - Apple Music - Apple TV+ - Apple Arcade - iCloud+ (with photos and video sharing, email/cal hosting with family domain name, hide my email, private browsing)

rxyz 4y ago
Apple Music is very clunky, much worse experience than spotify. I tried twice to switch. I would recommend paying a dollar for icloud+ and ignoring the rest.
- Terretta 4y ago
  One is for people who like collecting music and discovering things you wouldn't have discovered. The other is for people who like radio, and hearing more things like the things they already like. They're only superficially the same, in fact they're wildly different. Each will be a "worse experience" if your preferred experience is the other.

plaidfuji 4y ago

> video > audio Agreed, but keep in mind this is “access to virtually all available audio” vs “access to one particular channel/library of video”