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.
I'm not Spotify's greatest advocate here but why do all the comments here suggest that if he price goes up then it just mean you get more for your money.
It's called inflation. The cost of doing business for them has risen and therefore they are passing that back to consumer.
Now that doesn't prevent them from not increasing wages of course and pocketing some of that extra revenue instead of course.
It just shouldn't be surprising that things get more expensive as time goes on.
I’ve been wanting to get rid of Spotify for months as the service has been getting worse and worse and this might just be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Does anyone know of alternatives with
1) decent discovery for new music
2) preferably not self hosted
3) a functional Linux desktop app
4) allows downloading playlists for offline listening
getting all of these in one place and having them work well is why I’ve been stuck with Spotify for so long :/
$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.
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).
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!
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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.
It's called inflation. The cost of doing business for them has risen and therefore they are passing that back to consumer.
Now that doesn't prevent them from not increasing wages of course and pocketing some of that extra revenue instead of course.
It just shouldn't be surprising that things get more expensive as time goes on.
Does anyone know of alternatives with 1) decent discovery for new music 2) preferably not self hosted 3) a functional Linux desktop app 4) allows downloading playlists for offline listening
getting all of these in one place and having them work well is why I’ve been stuck with Spotify for so long :/
I also prefer Spotify over apple music and youtube music from a ui/ux perspective as well.
How do you like to discover music now?
I am using Bandcamp and Youtube to discover music. I also would like to check Musicbrainz.
Alternative: https://nuclearplayer.com/