Spotify premium - worth it at £4.99 a month?

[bigboss]

I just realised that one of the benefits of being a student again, is that I can get Spotify premium for £4.99 a month.

http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/news/be-a-premium-student-enjoy-50-off-with-nus-extra/

Now, I haven't really looked into spotify before. Can you convince me if it's worth having?

 

[The_Lhc]

Try the Free version to see if you like it.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Even better - try Premium free on a 30-day trial. You get so much more (content, sound quality and functionality) with the Premium version that the free version doesn't do it justice.

Link to the free Premium trial here

 

[Andy Clough]

Go for it BigBoss. You won't regret it.

 

[Lee H]

I'm happy at twice the price

 

[chebby]

Can I host it from my iPhone (and play via AirPlay) for £4.99 a month?

[Edit] ok you have to be a student. Just got that. Sorry.

 

[John Duncan]

I'm happy at twice the price

Like the TV licence.

 

[bigboss]

Thanks for your input so far. I'll sign up for the free trial first & see how it is. :rockout:

One more thing; is there any minimum contract?

 

[Gusboll]

Thanks for your input so far. I'll sign up for the free trial first & see how it is. :rockout:

One more thing; is there any minimum contract?

No

 

[bigboss]

Thanks for your input so far. I'll sign up for the free trial first & see how it is. :rockout:

One more thing; is there any minimum contract?

No

:cheers:

 

[Alec]

Listening to the new Chilli's EP via the free trial. Does your subscription just continue with payment if youdo nothing or do they cantact you?

 

[MajorFubar]

I don't know the answer to that but I do think they should consider making some music 'subscription only'. That way they might attract certain artists and labels who have so far chosen not to participate because they don't agree with Spotify Free customers being able to stream their music for nothing.

 

[The_Lhc]

I don't know the answer to that but I do think they should consider making some music 'subscription only'. That way they might attract certain artists and labels who have so far chosen not to participate because they don't agree with Spotify Free customers being able to stream their music for nothing.

Why would they care? They're still getting paid.

 

[MajorFubar]

Because it would make their paying-customers feel they're getting a better service and give them a bigger choice. You're right that it woldn't necessarily increase Spotify's profits. But working in the public sector I sometimes forget that private sector companies aren't interested in improving their service unless the change increases their profit-margin.

 

[The_Lhc]

Because it would make their paying-customers feel they're getting a better service and give them a bigger choice. You're right that it woldn't necessarily increase Spotify's profits. But working in the public sector I sometimes forget that private sector companies aren't interested in improving their service unless the change increases their profit-margin.

I meant why would any artists care if Spotify have a free option or not, the artist gets paid either way.

 

[MajorFubar]

Sorry I thought you meant Spotify not the artists (but my case for why Spotify probably won't do it is still true).

As for the artists, I don't know why exactly, but I know some artists/labels have specifically stated they won't participate because of the free service, including Pink Floyd and Adele (though strangely Adele's '19' album is on there, but '21' isn't for that reason).

 

[Lee H]

I don't know the answer to that but I do think they should consider making some music 'subscription only'. That way they might attract certain artists and labels who have so far chosen not to participate because they don't agree with Spotify Free customers being able to stream their music for nothing.

This would put off potential customers though and ultimately be self destructive. Their strategy is let you try it before you buy, you decide you like it, you sign up as a premium customer. To further sweeten the deal, you get extras such as HQ and caching should you decide to be a paying customer.

There's a calculated gamble from Spotify that you'll eventually sign up, hence the artist still gets paid.

 

[idc]

Its only free in as much as income is generated by advertising. WHF is not free, but it would be a lot more expensive without the adverts.

 

[MajorFubar]

This would put off potential customers though and ultimately be self destructive.

Not necessarily; it would depend how they did it. Obviously the Free repertoire would have to remain good enough to entice new customers. At the moment Free is access-all-areas, in terms of reportoire, and there must be a lot of customers who would pay if they had to, but don't do because Free offers all the artists.

At the moment the only thing which really tempts Joe Public to the Premium service is offline listening, meaning he can sync his favourite playlists to his phone and listen to them without eating-up his 3G bandwidth. The number of people who are interested in the 320K quality will be small.

 

[DandyCobalt]

I subscribed, but haven't really used it, because of screen burn from the unchanging screen image on the plasma - but perhaps with the new iPad app and via Apple TV this will be super.

 

[MajorFubar]

I subscribed, but haven't really used it, because of screen burn from the unchanging screen image on the plasma

Use a screen-saver?

 

[quadpatch]

A big thank you to Clare for mentioning the free trial of Spotify Premium. I was sitting on the fence for ages about using it. I had tried the free version a bit and the ads annoyed me too much. Also I assumed that my music was a bit too niche for it to be of much use (mostly soundtracks) but nope, they have tons! Ok not all by a long shot but a lot more than I thought. So glad that this pushed me to give it a go. I will certainly be paying £10/month for this when the trial runs out. Totally hooked!

 

[MajorFubar]

Nice one Quadpatch.
It's definitely worth it.
I've used it to discover loads of new music (or old-but-new-to-me music) which I wouldn't ever have dreamt of buying on CD for fear of it being a wasted purchase. Sometimes I've liked what I've heard, other times I've not. But it hasn't cost me any extra money to try, and that's the important bit.
So imo it's been worth £10pcm just for the sake of it widening my musical appreciation.

 

[Lee H]

So imo it's been worth £10pcm just for the sake of it widening my musical appreciation.

Me too. If you've got an iDevice and premium sunscription, I can recommend SpotON radio as a good way of doing this.

 

[MajorFubar]

Thanks I'll check that out