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.
I agree that live shows (and buying merch) is the best way to support artists.
But the CDNs required to run a music streaming service are anything but cheap.
Yeah, I still think music streaming makes little sense cause usually people listen to songs over and over. Movie streaming makes more sense cause most people watch one title and not watch it again for years or ever.