In a move that was somewhat anticipated, Spotify has raised its Premium subscription prices again, following a recent trend of price increases across streaming services.
Significantly, this price hike marks the second one by Spotify in less than a year. To recap, the music streaming giant had previously bumped up its charges in July of last year—for the first time in over a decade—taking its $9.99/month Premium plan to $10.99. Fast forward eleven months, and subscribers are facing yet another uptick in their monthly payments.
New Spotify Premium Charges Unveiled in the US
The monthly rate for a single user on Spotify Premium has been raised to $11.99. Those on a duo subscription will now pay $16.99, a bit more than the earlier $14.99 cost. Families receiving Spotify’s Family package, which accommodates up to six individuals in a home, will see their cost increase by $3, from $16.99 to $19.99. Nonetheless, the Spotify Student membership continues to be a bargain at $5.99 a month.
Over the coming weeks, Spotify will notify its subscribers of the rate changes via email.
Spotify states that these price adjustments will support continuous improvement and development of the platform. Parallel to the US, subscribers in the UK and Australia also saw their fees rise from £10.99 to £11.99 and from AU$12.99 to AU$13.99 respectively. It’s not yet clear whether Spotify will implement similar increases in other markets.
Based on an article from Bloomberg, Spotify’s renewed pricing approach might be in response to investments in their recent foray into offering audiobooks. Moreover, it’s believed that Spotify may be preparing to unveil a Basic Tier that excludes audiobooks but still includes music and podcasts. Concurrently, there’s talk of a potential new Supremium Tier set to serve up lossless audio quality, in response to long-standing consumer demand.
Despite the previous price rise in April, Spotify saw a mere 1.5% dip in user numbers. The company continues to flourish, reporting a total of 615 million active users, with 239 million of these being paying subscribers at the end of the first quarter.
While the new $11.99 fee for Spotify’s diverse music library is on the higher side compared to Apple Music and YouTube Music, which maintain their charges at $10.99 per month, it wouldn’t be surprising to see other platforms follow suit with increased prices.
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