There are too many paid streaming services — but Spotify and Hulu just made your viewing and listening choices a little easier by combining forces.
Starting today (March 12), the ad-supported version of Hulu is now a free part of your Spotify Premium account. Spotify touts the synergy between the two — “U.S. streams of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” and the Dusty Springfield classic “I Only Want to Be with You” rose 86 percent and 127 percent, respectively, the week after the songs were played in season 2 [of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale]” — but the big win here seems to be for Hulu, which is way behind Netflix in the video streaming game but still has 25 million subscribers and $1.5 billion in yearly ad revenue.
For consumers, it’ll save you money: Together, the two services will be $9.99, which is $6 cheaper than paying for them together. The deal ends June 10.
As a user of Hulu’s ad version, I can say a few things: Outside of The Handmaid’s Tale and Castle Rock, along with rebroadcasts of network TV shows, there’s not a ton of reasons to pay for the service separately. Originals like Future Man and The Runaways (aka The O.C but with superpowers) are ok, the movie selection is small and the audio for the randomly interspersed ads is weirdly about 30% louder than the shows.
Still, it’s like a decent second-tier cable channel — you may not watch it much, but it’s nice that it’s a (free) part of a larger package.
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