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by malshe·8y ago·view on hn ↗
A key metric not mentioned in the comments is premium average revenue per user (ARPU). It's consistently decreasing over the last 3 years:

2015: € 6.84

2016: € 6.20 (9% decline)

2017: € 5.32 (14% decline)

Also, the number of hours consumed per MAU as of December of each year is also increasing. I should have taken the average over the year for both but I am interested in the trend.

2015: 191 hours per year (17.4 billion/91 million)

2016: 217 hours per year (26.7 billion/123 million)

2017: 253 hours per year (40.3 billion/159 million)

1 comments
This probably just means that more people are using family plans instead of paying individually. I'm part of a family plan, as are pretty my everyone else I know. It only makes sense. The upside is that canceling a family plan is much harder than a single one just due to the increased number of people involved who'll be inconvenienced.
It may also mean that they’ve expanded the user base in countries that have lower purchasing power than western europe, and thus probably lower pricing. That’s surely a good thing?
Can confirm. Countries in Latin America are getting plans for the equivalent of $1.5
I live in Thailand, and got an advertised promotion for Spotify premium for less than half a dollar for three months total. Credit card usage and online payments here are pretty low though, so that will surely lower the speed of adaptation.
how easy would it be to VPN to a LA country, signup for the plan and then just have service for $1.5?
Probably not very hard. The biggest headache is probably that the recurring credit card purchases might be flagged and blocked for being an unrecognized international transaction. But then again, $1.50 won't raise alarms for many banks.
Don't they know the country where the card was issued? I.e. Spotify could refuse payment using non-LA card? Or, ideally, just bump it to the higher bracket (with appropriate notice).
Playlists are completely different. Already had this within Europe, if you like music in a country you should sign up for Spotify in that country. Music availability can also differ.

So could be possible if you like music commonly listened to in Latin America and don't use Spotify's playlists. Otherwise I'd pay more to stay with the service of your home country.

id assume the catalog is different by region the way netflix is, so you might not get the music you expect for that price