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Comment by freddie_mercury | Hacker News Reader

Spotify (after years) still doesn't exist in the country I live in.

Google Play (after years) still doesn't exist in the country I live in.

Apple Music has been available from day one.

They also have country-specific pricing, instead of expecting the right price for Americans to be the right price for a developing country.

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A slight loophole - If you can find a way to pay your Spotify subscription through a supported country (e.g. US card/billing address), then there are no restrictions on where you use it[1], unlike Netflix for example who do geo blocking.

[1] https://support.spotify.com/is/using_spotify/system_settings...

This. This is the only reason I continue to tolerate Apple Music. My job requires me to travel extensively across countries. With Apple Music, I can be assured that music in my playlists works across countries.

When am in the US, I honestly find YouTube Music to be the best (probably since it has a lot of my listening data already hence gets the prediction accurate). But Apple Music still remains the only music subscription I pay for.

If you pay for Spotify in a region, the selection should be the same wherever you physically are.

This. Definitely, only Apple music and Tidal accept world wide subscribers. We (third world countries) also have internet and valid credit cards to buy whatever we want as like US citizens, what make others discriminate regions?

Can't speak for Google or Apple, but I know that Spotify's entry into a country is largely dictated by rights holders. They themselves would like to offer everything to everyone, of course.

Its directed by spotifys ability to negotiate with rights holders.

Not sure if the unavailability of Spotify in Botswana is due to right holders. Think it's just not high on their priority list.

I always considered most of these decisions to come from accounting/taxes/different currency.

Getting to play the "well what about digital rights" seems like a cop-out for the previously mentioned reasons. It would anyways in my accounting department.

Try Deezer it might also work in your country

Deezer costs twice as much as Apple Music in my country.

Like so many web services they set a price for Americans and then think it will work for other countries with very different income levels.

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