I don’t understand subscribing to music. Maybe it’s just my age, but this isn’t the '90s where you hear a track you like and that one song is going to run you $20 at Tower Records. I like a song, I pay $1.29 and then it’s stored locally. Also cuts way down on data usage while driving. I struggle to get anywhere close to my 5GB data allowance.
After a dozen years of keeping subscription prices stable, Spotify has issued three price hikes in 2.5 years.
Spotify informed subscribers via email today that Premium monthly subscriptions would go from $12 to $13 per month as of users’ February billing date. Spotify is already advertising the higher prices to new subscribers.
Although not explicitly mentioned in Spotify’s correspondence, other plans are getting more expensive, too. Student monthly subscriptions are going from $6 to $7. Duo monthly plans, for two accounts in the same household, are going from $17 to $19, and Family plans, for up to six users, are moving from $20 to $22.
Spotify’s Basic plan, which is only available as a downgrade for some Premium subscribers and is $11/month, is unaffected.
For years, Spotify subscribers enjoyed stable prices, but today’s announcement marks Spotify’s third price hike since July 2023. Spotify last raised prices in July 2024. Premium individual subscriptions went from $11 to $12, Duo subscriptions went from $15 to $17, and Family subscriptions increased from $17 to $20.
I started my mp3 collection in 1997. Metadata was nonexistent, and online databases weren’t yet a thing. (I was mostly downloading 112kbps from IRC F-servs).
It is a bitch to get your collection in order, even with a tool like MusicBrainz Picard, but worth it in the end. It took me about a week to actually complete that project. The new stuff I download already has the metadata, so it’s a solved problem.
I agree, I think its such a bitch because a music collection is very personal and maybe your tags dont line up with what the general public think.
I’ve let Lidarr do the metadata for all my tracks as I would go insane trying to do it myself with the sheer quantity.
The tools we have these days to own and manage our own collections is incredible - its a shame so many people still use spotify.