When will we get Hulu for free on Spotify Family plan

[theadamsegal]

Spotify Team, 

You guys are great. We need to get over this family plan issue though.

If the Family Plan is a premium subscription, why is it that we aren't getting Hulu included? The Hulu subscription costs the same and the Premium subscription costs more. 

Please help us understand why we can't get the same benefit as the single Premium users?

[mcslain]

Come on Spotify.  This is ridiculous that less expensive plans get rewarded and more expensive plans get shafted.  This is a serious strike against you.  Do you want to end up like Pandora or something? 

[chasewheetley24]

**bleep** ye sputify i will not furget

[jbearce]

I want to echo what has been said by so many. I’ve been a Spotify paid subscriber since it was first available in the US. I upgraded to the premium family plan years ago for my two kids.  What gives, Spotify?  We, the loyal subscribers, at the highest pay level, don’t get the same benefits as premium?  

[deeplinks]

What people are stating here is incorrect. The highest paying customers are NOT the familiy plan subscribers. The highest paying customers are the ones with the standard plan. They pay $10 per license while family subscriptions cost from a range of $3 to $7.50 per license. With that logic, the highest paying customers get the most features. This move is almost like Spotify's response for non-family members teaming up to make family accounts.

I think a possible ultimatum for this issue would be for Spotify to offer ONE Hulu license per family subscription at an added cost. The price of the add-on will depend on how many licenses are consumed in that particular familly subscription. Obviously, the the add-on for Hulu would cost more for a family subscription with 5 Spotify licenses, and less for one consuming two licenses.

Easier said than done.. just my two cents.

[mcslain]

Deeplinks... the last time I checked $15 was more than $10.  I referred to this as the 'most expensive plan', and it is.  I'm sure Spotify enjoys getting $15 from people more than getting $10 from you.  No one asked for your 'logic' or to hear from a Spotify apologist.  So please, just go enjoy your Hulu.  

[deeplinks]

Mcslain, good of you to resort to personal attacks aimed at me when your thinking was proven wrong. Also, I'm part of a family plan. Fantastic assumption on your part.

What I stated is facts. The matter here IS NOT what the subscription alone costs. But rather, COST PER LICENSE. The real question here is how much an individual pays to access spotify based on their subscription plan. The breakdown is simple and can be seen below:

Family plan license cost: $3 to $7.50

Standard plan license cost: $10

$10 > $7.50. Unmistakable. 

Next time, prove my points wrong before "attempting" to go off on me. The analysis and the answer does not always lay on the surface. Think deeper.

[mcslain]

Deeplinks.  Freakin' chill dude.  No need to have an internet meltdown over this.  

[deeplinks]

.

[MaxieWoxy]

I think you should take your own advice and think deeper instead of being
so condescending.

If there wasn't a family plan, I would only be giving Spotify whatever the
amount is for an individual plan. I pay the extra amount per month to give
my kids access. There is no way I would pay individually for them - they
don't use it enough to warrant that. It's a "luxury" for them. In some ways
it's a no brainer to get that for just a little more per month.

Spotify is squeezing more dollars out of me per month than they would if
there were no family plan. I am pretty sure that was the idea. Aside from
that, they are increasing their user base and putting roots down so to
speak. You can bet that when my kids leave the nest and are on their own,
or have a family of their own, they will be paying for their own
individual or family accounts.

So you see, it's not as black and white as you think it is. And in some
cases, the cost per user is higher with a family plan.

[theadamsegal]

I think you're missing the point. A family plan is a premium plan with a higher price point. Spotify don't see it as a lost opportunity, or they wouldn't have the plan in the first place. 

As someone who pays for both Spotify and Hulu  it irks me that they can't give us the same benefit that individual premium users get.

[deeplinks]

I admit I was mean and apologies to Mcslain.

MaxieWoxy & theadamsegal - Your points are valid and invite you both read my original post where I addressed that topic. I never laid it out as black & white and recognize that family plan subscriptions are missing out on an extra perk--which is why I offered the ultimatum. Please read and let me know what you think.

[Left2Rightz]

Nice to see some calm restored. I'd just like to reply to this statement: "This move is almost [likely] Spotify's response for non-family members teaming up to make family accounts."

Family accounts need to come from the same street mailing address. Given device and IP  tracking tech, I doubt there's much of a scammy workaround. There might be some roommates able to do this, but heck I could barely get my old roommates to pay for shelter & heat, let alone share a streaming music bill.

[stephenandamber]

I too am glad to see things cooling down, everyone is entitled to their respectful views and opinions. I honestly see the decision from both perspectives, and simply stated that I personally can't justify the move to family given that it would just be my wife and me using it.

That said, this is likely all for not as the Hulu offer is likely a gimic that will suddenly disappear in the future leaving us regular premium users to pay for both. I was never very happy with the fine print of the Hulu offer as it seems to assert that this is a "scheme" to get people, such as myself, hooked so that we want to start paying for Hulu in the future (of which I hate to admit, they have succeeded). Hopefully I'm wrong at the offer remains for long time, my family greatly enjoys both services!

[deeplinks]

You have a valid point, however I think it is unreasonable to assume that the majority of the population is irresponsible like your previous roommates. And while there are technological controls placed to prevent fraudulent family accounts, it is extremely easy to get around this. I know of at least a handful of them in my office alone. Some of those people now live in different countries and still have the account.

Now let’s take into account university students living on campus. This situation alone opens up a huge risk for fraudulent family accounts. I don’t think I need to lay out the rest for you as you can see where I’m going with this.

All it takes is one person with 4 friends’ emails and 20 mins of free time to create 5 accounts.

[mcslain]

Deeplinks you're making this more complicated than it it.  How modern companies deal with the sharing of streaming accounts, be it Spotify, HBO, Netflix, Amazon_Prime, etc is an issue onto itself.  Most, if not all, currently take the opinion that there will be some people who work the system a bit, but they are ok with that as fighting against it will likely cost more than it will save.  And battling users will also bring on bad feelings when the better path is to just move towards building a base of loyal subscribers. Think of the bad mojo people got from Apple and their DRM MP3s. Was that worth it?  Apple had the lead in digital music, booted it, and they are still scrambling to catch up.  Also, the idea of cost per subsciber is not something Spotify thinks of much.  Does Pepsi think less of people who buy soda by the case?  It is much cheaper to do so. Their average cost per can is is under 50 cents, whereas individual can buyers are $1 and up 'accounts'.  So they don't maximize their profits like if they could have sold 24 individual cans.  But of course they don't think this way.  They brought in more money selling the case, and they have a user who is heavily committed to their product.  

All that said... none of it is really relevant here.  This is simply about Spotify making a bad call and angering some of its user base.  They should not have given a 'bonus' to some of its users and not others.  A bad decision that should be remedied.  

[deeplinks]

Mcslain, Spotify definitely looks at cost per license in the same way Pepsi looks at who buys soda by the case vs. by the bottle or whatever metric soda companies look at. The main reason here is forecasting. Their financial analysts need to look at these types of metrics in order to make decisions that ultimately decides what moves the company will make next. For example, Spotify probably saw that the individual subscription (most net profit for them) wasn't doing so great. What do they do to try to boost individual subscriptions? Incentivize it.

I brought up the whole cost per license deal because many here, including yourself, were saying that family plans cost more than individual plans, which is not true. I brought in the cost per license to show everyone one more layer. 

Lastly, I'm not siding with Spotify AT ALL only because I, too, want to save $1 on a Hulu subscription like the individual subscribers. If you refer to the last half of my original post, I offered a possible solution to make the family subscription a level playing field. From my very first post, I understood that family subscriptions are missing out on something. I invite you to go back and read it and let me know what you think. By no means is it a definite solution, but it's the only solution in 4 pages of people expressing their concern. We all understand that you're upset, because we're all in the same boat. The thing is, Spotify simply cannot just give family subscriptions a free Hulu account because they would lose SO MUCH MONEY doing so. How would you propose Spotify remedies this problem where both sides are happy? 

[mcslain]

Deeplinks... again I say you're making this more complicated than it is.  Waaaaay more complicated.  And I think you're wrong... about a lot.  But I don't want to go on discussing this with you.  Let's just agree to disagree.  Thanks!

[Zile]

I was just looking to upgrade my plan to a family plan when I stumbled upon this topic. It's good that I found it. I am not going to upgrade since I will be losing HULU.

[AfroRicanLibra]

This is absolutely ridiculous!!