As a Spotify user I was sad to hear that the service may come down hard on it’s free tier in the months to come. They are said to be considering a number of ways to further limit free usage of the service. According to a related article by Digital Music News the Spotify team is preparing to offer premium-only content. As they near the end of their contracts with Sony, Warner, and Universal, the days of listening to just about any song you want for free on Spotify are likely nearing an end.
According to the unnamed sources in the Digital Music News article the Spotify team is looking at ways to minimize the free service and make their premium tier more appealing. This a bound to drive away a lot of users that have enjoyed the free service over the years. It will also mean a nice influx of paid users as the company continues to move toward an IPO. We will have to wait and see what’s to come in the weeks and months to come but it sounds like Spotify users enjoying their free service can expect a very different experience.
Streaming music is moving into a new stage as Apple Music launched at the end of June and quickly surpassed 10 million users in the first month. Charging for music may very well be the norm in the near future. Enjoying your favorite songs and artists for free may soon be in the past. There have already been popular artists like Taylor Swift and Prince that refuse to work with Spotify. The changes coming will likely open the doors to working with these and future artists that are averse to the current Spotify business model. The question is how many users are ready to pay a monthly fee to stream music and what price they will be willing to pay in the long term. It seems backwards to pay more for streaming music than it costs to enjoy streaming movies and originals from Netflix. I personally think streaming music is overpriced.
As streaming music services move toward a premium model how much will subscribers be willing to pay? Right now both Sptify and Apple Music offer members unlimited streaming for $9.99 a month. That seems quite high when compared to Netflix which starts at $7.99 a month for unlimited video streaming. Perhaps the price will come down as the market for streaming music continues to grow.
Follow us @SmartDNSFan for the latest streaming news and updates. If you currently live or plan to travel outside of the United States you can enjoy channels like Netflix, Hulu, Apple Music, Spotify, and live sporting events from anywhere in the world by using a Smart DNS service.
