I’m a regular subscriber but I’m getting more and more confused about what I’m actually paying for. Is it really 'just' about shuffle vs. selective play at this point?
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As said in another comment, you get a better audio quality and the avaibility to store music offline (I found it quite useful on my mobile phone). Of course, the quality will only matter to some people.
I'm currently on their $10/month plan but I'm skeptical of the audio quality argument. Firstly, I don't think all songs have a high quality option, just more popular songs. Second is that its hard to argue that the improvement is worthwhile when the you've got the loudness war to compete with (just try listening to Snow Patrol - Run without feeling at least a bit annoyed)
Its hard to analyse this quantitatively without bias since there are no indicators of quality in the Spotify App while a song is playing.
>> "As said in another comment, you get a better audio quality and the avaibility to store music offline (I found it quite useful on my mobile phone). Of course, the quality will only matter to some people."
As you say the quality thing will only matter to some people. The ability to store music offline is also becoming a less important feature as mobile networks improve. I have to admit I still use it quite often but looking ahead a few years Spotify really needs to differentiate their premium product more.
> The ability to store music offline is also becoming a less important feature as mobile networks improve.
I only need it when I don't have wifi, but I think I'm going to start using mp3 players again because managing the whole download/undownload thing in Android Spotify is tedious and the overall useability of the app is crap.
I have LTE in my area so I may be an exception, but I was listening to Spotify in my car for over an hour yesterday without any WiFi connectivity.
The app itself is sometimes a pain (particularly via the controls on my car steering wheel...), like the inability to change whether I've liked or disliked a song.
> I have LTE in my area so I may be an exception, but I was listening to Spotify in my car for over an hour yesterday without any WiFi connectivity.
I have a 50MB limit. And the stupid app doesn't let me differentiate between playing offline and playing only when I have wifi, so if wifi is turned on on my mobile and also the 3G (which I might have on because I want to browse some websites when I'm outside my home or going somewhere), and the wifi doesn't work for some reason, Spotify will happily leech off my data plan with me being none the wiser.
Good point. I did forget to mention better sound quality.
I stopped paying for Spotify back in August even though there was a clear benefit. The only clear added benefit you're going to receive is no ads. I think Google Music is putting pressure on them and they need something to compete.
And offline playlists. Apart from the US there aren't many countries that offer unlimited mobile data plans for a reasonable price. So for me, offline playing is a very big deal, since that's how I listen to most of my music when I'm away from home.
Include the Uk in cheap unlimited data.
£15 a month, sim only, on 3. Also a £12.90 option, but with less inclusive texts and minutes.
I have the 3 unlimited plan but also Spotify premium because it's just easier having offline synced playlists, especially for train journeys when signal is always spotty.
Wait. We have unlimited mobile data in the US at reasonable prices? From whom? My "unlimited" T-Mobile plan throttles down to 2G speeds after 500MB.
To be fair, T-Mobile doesn't advertise their plans as "unlimited", they advertise them as 500mb/2.5gb/5gb at 4G speed. It's only $10/month more to bump up to 2.5GB.
And $10 more after that to go to full blown unlimited.
And if you paid the extra $20 a month, you would have the Unlimited LTE plan instead of the Unlimited 2G plan with 500mB of LTE. $70 is still reasonable in my eyes.
I have unlimited data on Virgin Mobile for $35/$45/$55 a month (based on # of minutes you want), though I had to pay full price for my phone.
I don't know which TMobile plan you're on. I have "unlimited" which throttles to 2G after 5GB, for only $30.
Finland: unlimited 3G for 12,90€/month.
Ads are completely unacceptable for me so I've always used it with a subscription. To be honest I hadn't realised the free version had other restrictions.
Totally agree on the ads piece. I've subscribed pretty much since it was possible to do so in the US and think it's worth it for the no ads thing alone.
Yeah, the experience without ads is a lot better. I've actually moved to Google Music, because a lot of the music I like and listen to isn't mainstream and Google Music allows me to upload 20k songs of my own.
Also the ability to play whichever songs or albums you want which is more like owning the albums (or maybe more like being able to listen to whatever you want in a record store that you live and work in) rather than hoping songs/artists you like come up on shuffle.
On-demand is a must for me. I would have never payed for a streaming service if it was only radio-like.
The ads on the free version are fairly frequent and rather annoying so avoiding that is a big plus.
Still, it's better than public radio stations.
So no-ads, no-shuffle, offline, high-qual it is. Still reason enough to pay then.
Looks like they removed the mid tier plan, and it is now the same as the top tier, did spotify just get twice as expensive?
I think the mid-tier features are mostly free now (mobile use was the big one I think).
I think the mid-tier features are mostly free now
What the mid-tier plan gave us was ad-free listening. It sucks that you know have to pay twice as much for that.
Spotify doesn't have shuffle in the free version, you might be thinking of Pandora. Spotify makes you pay to get rid of annoying ads that come on every 10-20 minutes. They also offer higher quality music and an offine mode when you pay.
I think he/she is talking about the shuffle feature available for free users on Mobile.
no ad.
Also, offline use.
That used to cost 50% less.
strange... I still pay 4,99 €.
I think they grandfathered the mid tier plan?