Spotify screws over Premium Users and lets Free users use Spotify Connect

[AlTech]

Spotify is screwing over Premium users and giving Free users access to Spotify Connect. Spotify Connect has been a Premium only feature since it launched many years ago but now Spotify has decided to bring it to the Free tier and in the process screws over Premium customers.

 

Free users will need their Wi-Fi enabled speakers to receive a firmware update before they can start using this on speakers.

 

Quote

Spotify says it’s now letting free-tier subscribers stream music over Spotify Connect-enabled speakers. In order to benefit from the change, hardware manufacturers will need to update to Spotify’s latest SDK, letting you enjoy the ad-supported service over a high-quality Wi-Fi connection instead of Bluetooth.

Spotify’s free tier still has its limitations compared to Spotify Premium, but back in April a redesigned app gave non-paying subscribers a lot more freedom in what they can listen to. Instead of being forced to shuffle tracks across the entire catalog, Spotify gave non-paying users 15 auto-generated playlists which they could freely choose to play songs from, although they still have to listen to ads after every few tracks.

 

I'm very dissapointed with this and throughout this year I feel like the amount of perks that Premium offers has been reduced. I'm not entirely sure why considering it is the 20% (Premium Customers) who are providing 80% of the revenue whilst the 80% (Free Users) provide only 20% of the revenue. Seems like Spotify's got their priorities the wrong way around.

 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/7/18071464/spotify-connect-free-tier-ad-supported-premium

[DVA]

I miss being in college and only paying 5 bucks a month for Spotify premium :c

[Shally]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I'm very dissapointed with this and throughout this year I feel like the amount of perks that Premium offers has been reduced. I'm not entirely sure why considering it is the 20% (Premium Customers) who are providing 80% of the revenue whilst the 80% (Free Users) provide only 20% of the revenue. Seems like Spotify's got their priorities the wrong way around.

 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/7/18071464/spotify-connect-free-tier-ad-supported-premium

Where do you get those 80-20 numbers from?
And what even is Spotify Connect...

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Shally said:

Where do you get those 80-20 numbers from?
And what even is Spotify Connect...

Spotify is casting your music to another device, something I thought one could always do with a free account.(I know I could to a chromecast, but with ad's)

[AlTech]

4 minutes ago, Shally said:

Where do you get those 80-20 numbers from?

TechQuickie video and also Spotify themselves publish information about where they make money.

Quote

And what even is Spotify Connect...

It allows you to use Wi-Fi to play music on another device from the device you're on.

 

Example 1: Say I'm wearing headphones connected to my phone, I can change the song or do anything else Spotify related on my PC and it will change the song playing on my phone.

 

Example 2: Hypothetically I have a smart speaker and I could use the spotify app on my phone or desktop or laptop to play music on the speaker without using Bluetooth (again using Wi-Fi).

[Shally]

Just now, timl132 said:

Spotify is casting your music to another device, something I thought one could always do with a free account.(I know I could to a chromecast, but with ad's)

If I spent money on Spotify speakers I would expect to not have to pay $10  a month to use them... 
No wonder I've never heard of them, it sounds like a awful idea

[AlTech]

Just now, Shally said:

If I spent money on Spotify speakers I would expect to not have to pay $10  a month to use them... 
No wonder I've never heard of them, it sounds like a awful idea

It's not spotify specific speakers. It applies to smart speakers and any WI-fi device you want to cast to.

[Shally]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Example 1: Say I'm wearing headphones connected to my phone, I can change the song or do anything else Spotify related on my PC and it will change the song playing on my phone.

This one I can see why they charge for this, as I find it "kinda" useful from time to time. 

But why would I spent money on speakers AND pay $10 for that feature? Surely it can't be used often enough for that

[Scheer]

I guess I just see things a little differently, I don't quite understand how you can be mad that features you like are now free? If its no longer worth it to you to pay for premium, then don't pay for premium...

 

Paid tiers don't have to be value adds, the new thing to do (and I'm a huge fan of it) is for the paid tier to simply be the "fast ring", and eventually it trickles down to free and the paid tier gets something else new to themselves. Plex does a great job at this.

 

Also, from a quick search, the 20% are using more bandwidth as they have a higher bitrate (costs Spotify more money) and don't have to listen to ads (Spotify makes less money), so there is some of the skew in your numbers and I'm sure there is more.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Shally said:

This one I can see why they charge for this, as I find it "kinda" useful from time to time. 

But why would I spent money on speakers AND pay $10 for that feature? Surely it can't be used often enough for that

Most people with speakers use Bluetooth and it's totally free to play music on Speakers via Bluetooth.

 

What Spotify is doing is casting through Wi-Fi which is different.

[Shally]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

It's not spotify specific speakers. It applies to smart speakers and any WI-fi device you want to cast to.

Oh I see, but once again I don't use that feature very often. 

I think out of the 20% of paying users, 95% probably just buy it for offline mode and having everything song imaginable at your finger tips, including myself. Honestly I don't care about any other premium feature since I just don't think its used often enough to complain about

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Scheer said:

I guess I just see things a little differently, I don't quite understand how you can be mad that features you like are now free? If its no longer worth it to you to pay for premium, then don't pay for premium...

The problem is many will still pay for Premium for removing ADs and Offline listening.

 

Removing other intangible or tangible benefits of Premium feels like shooting themselves in the foot.

 

A big part of why many can justify the price of Premium is the other benefits it provides.

1 minute ago, Scheer said:

Paid tiers don't have to be value adds, the new thing to do (and I'm a huge fan of it) is for the paid tier to simply be the "fast ring", and eventually it trickles down to free and the paid tier gets something else new to themselves. Plex does a great job at this.

That's not Spotify's business model.

1 minute ago, Scheer said:

Also, from a quick search, the 20% are using more bandwidth as they have a higher bitrate (costs Spotify more money) and don't have to listen to ads (Spotify makes less money), so there is some of the skew in your numbers and I'm sure there is more.

I'm not wrong. Spotify makes basically almost nothing from a Free User and they make orders of magnitude more from a Premium User.

 

The free tier is 1) Subsidized by ADs and 2) Subsidized by Premium users.

 

Without Premium users Spotify wouldn't be able to afford offering a Free Tier.

[Slayerking92]

pay for music?  havn't done that since the 90's.

[AHaskin14]

Spotify needs to be sure it's still appealing to it's paid users as much as possible. I'm sure there are many people like myself who also have amazon prime and could listen to music there, and a fair amount of people paying for a you tube (I don't) and can listen to music there. I suppose one of the only reasons I stick to spotify is the pretty good desktop interface (not a 100% fan of mobile), and that I have so many playlists already set up.

[Volbet]

I'll do something I don't do often: quote from the Bible:

Quote

I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, Matthew 20:1-16.

 

Or said in another way: What's it to paid users that free users now get this feature?

Paid users are still getting what they pay for. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

14 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

The problem is many will still pay for Premium for removing ADs and Offline listening.

that's exactly why i pay for it. offline listening is awesome becuase most of the time when i'm on the train my internet connection drops out. 

 

and ad free listening is always nice. 

[captain_to_fire]

I don't really see this as a big deal. I'd probably get pissed if Spotify decides to make higher bitrates available to the free tier or if artists (mainstream & independent) start leaving Spotify because they pay unfairly. 

 

Then it's me still waiting for Spotify to add sorting by genre option. It's stupid that it's 2018 and they still don't have that feature when Windows Media Player has that feature for more than a decade already. 

[YoloSwag]

40 minutes ago, DVA said:

I miss being in college and only paying 5 bucks a month for Spotify premium :c

Dang didn't know there were regional pricing disparities charged by Spotify. You could get one in my country for around $2.5.

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, YoloSwag said:

Dang didn't know there were regional pricing disparities charged by Spotify. You could get one in my country for around $2.5.

I pay $4 for Spotify Family 

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

I pay $4 for Spotify Family 

I pay £4.99 for Spotify for Students.

[YoloSwag]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

I pay £4.99 for Spotify for Students.

That's like how Steam charges £5.00 for some games in the UK then $5.00 games in the US... with that logic too we get games cheaper in my country lol.

 

Hmmm, a suggestion for you guys, try using a VPN that should show your location as Philippines then check the prices in the website if it changed. It's worth a shot.

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, YoloSwag said:

That's like how Steam charges £5.00 for some games in the UK then $5.00 games in the US... with that logic too we get games cheaper in my country lol.

 

Hmmm, a suggestion for you guys, try using a VPN that should show your location as Philippines then check the prices in the website if it changed. It's worth a shot.

That probably won't work. I think the likes of Spotify knows if a card is issued somewhere else. Also, some countries with more expensive Spotify Premium prices like the US ($10/mo) have slightly more songs than us.

[RejZoR]

Can't even use Spotify, like I'm living in Sudan, 1891...

[Commodus]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this.

 

The main reason you pay for Premium is to get rid of the ads and play music while offline.  The need for Premium to play on connected devices was a holdover from an era when gadgets like smart speakers were seen as rare extras.  It's just another platform -- your ability to play music shouldn't by limited by whether or not a device has a screen.

 

I never quite get the notion that giving free users more features is a bad thing.  It's not an exclusive club where you're trying to exclude as many people as you can.

[YoloSwag]

13 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

That probably won't work. I think the likes of Spotify knows if a card is issued somewhere else. Also, some countries with more expensive Spotify Premium prices like the US ($10/mo) have slightly more songs than us.

Does PayMaya work on Spotify? haven't tried yet as I've always been joining the Spotify bundles of other people lol.