Just in time for the holiday buying season, Spotify is repeating some the deep discounts that it offered earlier this year. And while they may help keep the music streamer stay competitive, they offer almost nothing in compensation to artists and rights holders.
Spotify is promoting deep discounts to its Premium service, which usually costs $9.99 per month.
Now through January 2nd, new Spotify paid users can get 3 months of premium service, usually costing $29.97, for just 99 cents. And if you are lucky enough to own Google Chromecast streaming device, you can get 3 months of Spotify Premium 100% free. These offers appear to be available both in the U.S, and overseas.
But, unlike Apple Music, when Spotify offers free trials, no royalties are paid; and when they charge 99 cents, the streamer does not make up the difference. Creators and rights holders are paid a percentage of revenue by on demand streaming music services. So when Spotify sells a three month subscription for 99 cents, $29 less per subscriber is added to the payment pool.
“This is a promotional offer in the US that drives new users to become Premium subscribers after the trial period,” a Spotify spokesperson told Hypebot earlier this year when they were running another 99 cent deal. “We tested this back in December, 2014 and the results were really great in terms of Premium retention.”
