When Bloomberg reported that Spotify would be upping the cost of its premium subscription from $9.99 to $10.99, and including 15 hours of audiobooks per month in the U.S., the change sounded like a win for songwriters and publishers. Higher subscription prices typically equate to a bump in U.S. mechanical royalties — but not this time.
By adding audiobooks into Spotify’s premium tier, the streaming service now claims it qualifies to pay a discounted “bundle” rate to songwriters for premium streams, given Spotify now has to pay licensing for both books and music from the same price tag — which will only be a dollar higher than when music was the only premium offering. Additionally, Spotify will reclassify its duo and family subscription plans as bundles as well.
That’s great! Not sure where you live (because shipping), but a lot of artists (I listen to) have limited physical releases on Bandcamp. Sometimes it’s worth the extra few bucks. My digital collection is bigger tho.
So I actually do spend more on musicians than only streaming services CEO people. There is of course the ecological aspect of the production of the physical releases, but I don’t drive nor eat meat. I’d buy their stuff at a concert too.
I use Slsk for my other needs.