Long time subscriber wondering why I still pay (OPEN LETTER)

[padishar]

Spotify,

First off, I love you, I love your service, it's amazing.

However, I've noticed over the past 6 months that it's getting very difficult for me to justify paying for this service when I see the free tier continuing to get all of the innovation and support. And for my biggest problem with Spotify, I actually HAVE to use it even though I have a full-paying account.

I like to use Spotify on my mobile device, I hardly ever save songs to my phone, I almost always use Shuffle for my playlists, and I'm OK with Ads (I pay for HULU as well) - it provides a nice break. I also have a wife that loves Spotify and Kids that love it to. And that's the problem.

I spend most of my day at work and my family is at home most of the day. Unfortunately Spotify only lets you have one device playing at any given time, so while my kids are listening to Disney music at home. I have to log out of my $10/month account and sign into a FREE account just to be able to use Spotify. This is frankly ridiculous especially given we are OK with the limitations on the free service. But it's nice once in a while to not have those ads. (And yes, I know I can save the playlists to my phone, etc, etc)

Here's what I would love... The ability to stream at any given time to 2 or 3 devices provided that I register each device beforehand. Heck, you're free to lock onto my GPS location to ensure that the accounts are coming from the same City so you know that I'm not sharing my account with the world.

Come on Spotify, you can do better. In fact, I know you can because you seem hell bent on giving freebies to all your freeloaders (free radio service, free on mobile now, etc etc.).

-Love Hate with Spotify

[brandonmarkb]

I agree 100%. I've paid for a subscription since the beginning of the US launch. I have two paid accounts now in my house. One for me, and one for my wife/kids for their music. 

I'm all for more music, but if you're going to keep adding value to those who haven't made a financial committment to your service, please also make sure that you continue to add value to those of use who have. Having no ads is not worth $20/month to me across 2 accounts. The Android app is super-buggy and often unresponsive (yes, I've tried everything in the troubleshooting--spare me). So why do I keep paying when I can get everything I'm getting now for free?

Be careful of the message you're sending to the rest of us who are already on board. If we don't see the innovation and value being added at a comparable rate of the free tier, we won't stay. I know I won't.

[Peter__]

Also be sure to add your vote to ideas topics such as discount family subscriptions. 

[padishar]

I've checked all those topics and would love to "add my vote to ideas topics", but what's the point? These topics have been discussed and posted for over 2 years now.

Clearly it doesn't take this long to implement a simple payment scheme considering the costs/buildout needed to open Spotify to free users on mobile everywhere. Give me a break.

The only vote you'll be getting is when I cancel and move to another service (or just create 10 fake Gmail accounts to listen to "ad-free" spotify). Hopefully someone in the Finance department can do the math on that one.

[Josh]

Hello!

Well.. Premium is ad free and you get higher quality sound, offline listening and you can pick the songs you listen to. If i was not going somewhere were there was no internet connection (planes, etc) i would find it hard to understand why i pay for Premium as well. I agree, there needs to be the same excitement for the premium users as there is the free users.  You also have to remember that Spotify is dealing with music licensing they can not add different payment options as easily as you think, they have to pay for the music you listen to, and it could be a longer process to add something like that then you think.  (But then again, i am not really sure haha, i don't work for Spotify). 

[padishar]

Hey all good points. I get it. The reality is that i live in a large metro area, and never change my spotify audio quality settings ( I'm listening through cheap phone headphones for crying out loud ).

Here's the problem: please tell me what is different about what you just told me versus when I signed up for premium during the US launch ( 2, 3, 4 years ago? - I can't remember anymore). Heck, it's probably gotten worse since I can't seem to use a Shuffle button for artists anymore when I'm on my Premium account unlike the Free account.

[sergiespinosa]

Yo tambien voy a dejar de pagar SPOTIFY.  El usuario PREMIUM ya no esta justificado. 😞

+1

[Greg]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for taking the time to post.

I completely understand the interest in a family subscription, but @Josh is correct on this. Licensing makes this far more difficult to implement than you might think. We certainly could do with an update on the idea thread though, so I'll get some info on this. 

As for Premium-only features, again @Josh has detailed it pretty well. Offline Mode, Extreme Quality, ad-free listening and most importanly, the ability to actually choose what you listen to. It's also woth noting that Connect is a Premium only feature.

[brandonmarkb]

So yes, offline mode, mobile, and enhanced quality are obviously value-adds for the premium. Connect, while great, isn't something that I'll personally be using. I think the overall frustration comes from the fact that in 2011, it was easy to hand over $10 and really see the value. Now, sure there's value, but the gap between the two has narrowed to where the decision is much more difficult. All the Spotify news I've seen over the past few months has been about things that make me question my need for a subscription, and leave me wondering if I could get by without it. But in that time where's the news that makes me want to stay? 

A lot of us love the service, obviously. But I'll tell you, in checking the comments of a few news articles touting this change, sure, there are people that are happy. But I've also seen a few people with the comment "well why am I still paying for premium then?" The fact that premium subscribers are asking that is something that would concern me if I were in the marketing and/or product development team at Spotify. Spotify can revisit the talking points, but if customers are questioning the value, it's not the customers' problem.

[Joe]

What an interesting discussion. It never even crossed my mind to downgrade to free and the comments here made me think about why I want to hang on to my premium subscription.

I mostly listen to spotify on my mobile devices, through Connect while at home and earphones when I'm out and about. So I guess the features I'm not prepared to give up, are

Ad-free listening

Listening without enforced shuffle

Spotify Connect
Extreme audio quality
Downloaded playlists

Free users have more now but so what? I still get everything I had before, for the same price and features I am not going to give up without a fight.

[NoGoodName]

DITT- FREAKING - O.

Read about Beats mMc earlier this AM ... $14.99/month for 5 STEAMING ACCOUNTS on one bill.

http://business.time.com/2014/01/16/beats-music-streaming-service-partners-with-att/

Spotify had better offer some relief soon. The "Family Plan" has been vaporware and all talk for wayyyyyy too long.

Get your act together guys. Seriously.

[carrieverde]

I just cancelled my Premium subscription (that I have had for about 2 years now). I am going to see how it goes for a couple months, but I really don't see the value in keeping it vs. a free membership. I still love Spotify and will continue to use it, I'm just not sure it's worth paying for anymore. If anything, I would renew under the "Unlimited" subscription for ad free listening at half the price.

[Joe]

Unlimited only gives you ad-free on a PC and a lower streaming bitrate.

[Peter__]

If anyone is wondering the difference between subscription plans, I've drawn up an unofficial chart here:
http://community.spotify.com/t5/Newcomers-and-Contribution/Subscription-Comparison-Chart/td-p/666916

[padishar]

Well, it's game on now. It's been 1.5 years since my last post and I'm still frustrated that I, as a paying member of Spotify, still have to log out of my paid account and log into my free account (without my playlists, etc) in order to have more than one person in my household listen to music. I am perfectly happy paying a little more for multiple computers/phones to access Spotify, but am not willing to have to pay 100% the full rate. A $15/month would be perfect for several computers (not just one more)

Looks like Apple announcing their new music service with Beats has a Family plan that I'm looking for. $14.99 per month for up to 6 family members. Spotify, You've got until June 30 (the launch date for Apple Music) to launch your Family Plan or I'm officially done.