I have to be honest, I immediately decided to quit the service and subscribe to YouTube Premium as soon as I saw the news yesterday. I would've been fine if it was just the regular full-priced subscription offerings that were increasing in price, but to do it to the student plan as well? And for what, to cover the costs of Hulu? It's not like audiobooks are included with the student plan! Given that this latest price hike now puts Spotify's student plan within a dollar of YouTube Premium's student plan while being more expensive than almost every other music streamer's student plans, I decided to take the plunge and subscribe to YouTube Premium, because if Spotify's going to increase the price of their subscriptions and not offer a good reason to do it, then why even bother?
The issue is most people don't have a setup that will even care.
Bluetooth lowers audio quality, and very few people have DACs or even phones right 3.5 jacks.
I often imagine an alternate history where Apple kept the jack, maybe added a 4.4... audio quality would be so much higher now.
Think about all the audio engineers who don't even consider higher quality setups. All the bandwidth on earth don't matter if the original master isn't perfect.
I noticed the price creeping the last time and just said to me “when it touches the $15 mark it’s gone, it seems to be approaching there so I’ll look for a different platform or just go back to mp3s.
$22/month for a family plan of 5 people to have unlimited streaming is more than worth it to me. They would have to triple the price for me to even think about it being an issue. And this is coming from someone who was on what.cd for years.
I also prefer Spotify over apple music and youtube music from a ui/ux perspective as well.
I recently switched to an iPod and have a Samba server that I can use to access my music library on the go if needed, via WireGuard. Honestly, I could not be more happier with it. I think there are very few advantages for technically inclined people to still pay for streaming services, and the fees are not one of them.
I am using Classic iPod using Rockbox, it is basically drag and drop without Apple's gatekeeping. I also changed battery and increase storage capacity using iFlash adapters. Although I am very happy with this setup, I recommend you check some cheap mp3 players that can be used with Rockbox. It was pain in the ass to open it, and second hand market is way too expensive.
I am using Bandcamp and Youtube to discover music. I also would like to check Musicbrainz.
Cancelled mine a while ago. My partner likes watching YouTubers on the TV, and I can't abide ads. So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!
If you're actually looking for a streaming service that is more respectful of artists, Tidal (though I have a feeling it may not last). They pay up to 10x per stream in royalties, and also have a more equitable algorithm (Spotify pushes an unfair weight to more popular artists across their service, regardless of your personal streaming).
I listened to it like 12 years through proxies and always hoped they would expand worldwide, they got more aggressive with their blocking so I ditched them. I really miss their radio stations.
I haven’t cancelled Spotify etc but I axed HBO max after what seemed to be the third email about another price increase in a short period.
Funny thing is, if they just had offered me larger one-shot price increase, I’d have paid it no mind likely. Something about the drip-feed of price increases in such a short time pissed me off enough to cancel though.
I rage quit Spotify a few years ago because they kept breaking how the app worked with frustrating regularity. This was around when they changed the hue of the spotify icon to a slightly different one.
YTM is arguably a worse product, but also a consistent one with zero UX churn, which I'll take any day of the week.
Youtube Premium is also very nice if you spend any time ever watching youtube videos.
Long ago I canceled my spotify because they were giving millions to Joe Rogan, but not the artist actually making music. You could spend a year making a solid album and make a fraction of what some dude that just spews gibberish makes in one episode.
Spotify is not just a music platform but a podcast platform too. I'll bet they make a good amount from Rogan's show. I don't see what the big deal is about giving money to the podcaster making podcasts instead of the artist making music.
The comment was more of social commentary on the fact that a group of people could spend a year of their lives doing something like making an album of music, and make substantially less money than someone that just makes up facts for 1 hour.
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