Spotify on Friday announced that it’s adding a new Basic tier to its streaming music plans that costs $11 per month and that removes the monthly audiobook listening time.
The new Spotify Basic plan, which is available only to U.S. subscribers at the moment, strips away access to the 15 hours a month of audiobooks and gives subscribers access to just music and podcasts, which users uninterested in audiobooks might appreciate.
Spotify earlier in June announced its second price increase in less than a year that saw the price of its Premium plan go up from $11 to $12 per month, its Duo plan go from $15 to $17 per month, and its Family plan go from $17 to $20 a month. It was reported by Bloomberg back in April that the price hike was to help offset the cost of adding audiobooks to its roster, a move that has made it the second largest provider of audiobooks next to Audible. This new Basic plan is a throwback to the $11-per-month Premium plan, sans audiobooks.
On the flipside, in March Spotify announced a new $10-per-month Audiobooks Access plan that avid readers can opt for if audiobooks are all they want. The plan includes 15 hours of audiobook listening a month, but is not completely devoid of music — it comes with access to Spotify’s ad-supported music service, too.
It’s likely (we can only hope) that this won’t be the last time this year that Spotify announces new plans or pricing. The Sweden-based music streamer keeps toying with the idea of adding a “HiFi” plan, which was teased earlier this month as reports that a new $5-per-month hi-res audio “add-on” was inbound for the end of the year.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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