Spotify and Hulu offer $13-a-month subscription bundle
Widening a combo previously only for students, soon anyone can lump the video- and music-streaming services together to save five bucks a month. And free mobile listeners could see some improvements.
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A Spotify bundle with Hulu combines the two subscriptions and cuts their aggregate price.
Spotify and Hulu widened a popular bundle Wednesday to all of Spotify's US subscribers. They'll soon be able to get both services for a total of $12.99 a month.
Spotify is also tweaking its free tier to be easier to use on mobile phones, according to a report by Bloomberg. The changes could give free mobile listeners more control over what's playing on a playlist and give them access to playlists more quickly.
The Hulu deal, which is $5 monthly discount to what you would pay for both separately, combines a $9.99 Spotify Premium music-streaming subscription with Hulu's tier that costs $7.99 and still has commercials. As an introductory promotion, the first month will cost $10.99 and the next two months are $9.99.
It's only available to current Spotify Premium members in the US, but this summer anyone can sign up for the package, the companies said.
The companies have offered a similar package to college students starting last year. So if you're lucky enough to be racking up insurmountable debt at a US college or university, you can pay even less for Spotify and Hulu together -- the student deal offers both for $4.99 a month.
Spotify is in the midst of a parade of news after going public earlier this month. It will hold a news event April 24, with reports speculating it could be to unveil enhanced streaming to cars, a speaker product or the different version of its free tier.
The package deal announced Wednesday is designed to help Spotify and Hulu ramp up its memberships at a time when increasing scale is important to both companies. Spotify has grown into the world's biggest streaming music service, but it remains dramatically unprofitable because of music royalty costs. Adding paying members is the best way it can eventually dig out of its profitability hole. And even though Hulu is one of biggest streaming video services in the US, it still has just a third as many subscribers as Netflix's US member base.
First published on April 11 at 8:27 p.m. PT.
Update at 11:55 pm: Adds background and information from a Bloomberg report.
Spotify has made you a handy chart, too.