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.
Probably it wasn’t noticeable. Imagine this scenario: somebody would pay a monthly fee, would download “entire” Spotify and then forever listen to it in offline mode. And since it’s offline, artists won’t get payed as well.
then I dunno, maybe require periodic (e.g. monthly) checks to verify that I’ve been paying for a subscription, instead of punishing me for having the nerve to try viewing my library while I’m on an elevator?