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.

  • ozymandias117@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    As bad as Epic is, probably worse…

    Even though Bandcamp was profitable the new CEO said this after buying it

    the financial state of Bandcamp has not been healthy

    So they’re probably looking for any way to cut costs. They fired half of the staff on day 1, including anyone who tried to unionize