On Sept. 7, Spotify and Hulu changed the streaming business. They announced that students who use Spotify Premium would also be able to watch Hulu. Spotify already presented a sweet deal by allowing students who are in college to pay a discounted price of $4.99 a month for a subscription of the premium service. Now with the same price, students are able to download their favorite songs on Spotify and watch their favorite movies and TV shows on Hulu.
This is probably one of the few times where I am in favor of capitalism. The price of $4.99 is competitive, especially when you juxtapose it with other popular streaming services. Apple Music offers students a subscription for $4.99 a month with no extra service added, while Tidal offers a subscription for $9.99 a month to its student base. One would really have to love Beyoncé or Dr. Dre to justify using other services.
Shortly after, T-Mobile and Netflix also announced a partnership. If you are a customer of T-Mobile, you are able to receive Netflix at no additional charge. AT&T similarly offers HBO to their customers as well.
Many streaming services are expensive, some costing up to $20 a month. We now see them including their services with other options as well. Hopefully this is good news for customers, because we should get some amazing deals. An obvious drawback is that you may not be able to get the subscriptions you want in the offered deals.
Along with this, many people found the option of streaming services as a more fiscally responsible option compared to cable TV bills. However, as more streaming options become popular, many TV shows and movies will try to negotiate exclusive license deals with those services. Evidence of this is when Disney pulled its entire catalog off Netflix in preparation for the streaming service they’re releasing in 2019.
This could cause some consumers to sign up for multiple subscriptions simply to watch their favorite shows. “House of Cards” is only available on Netflix, while “Rick & Morty” is only available on Hulu. So when in fact streaming services were once a great alternative to save more money, it looks like the cost is going to increase.
We will not be students forever, and soon we will be paying the full price for many of our subscriptions. Hopefully, these predictions are wrong and we can continue singing along with our favorite artist in the shower and introduce our one-night stands to that one British detective show on Netflix. Let’s enjoy it while we can.