At a time when the music streaming industry is witnessing intensifying competition among its major players, Spotify, one of the world’s leading music streaming platforms, has announced price increases for its Premium subscription plans in several key markets, thus following a trend set by major music streaming services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music Premium. This comes a day before Spotify is due to report its earnings for the second quarter of the year.
The hike of the prices of Spotify’s Premium plans confirms reports that had popped up during the weekend, speculating that a price hike would be coming to Spotify Premium. Now, according to an official statement by the company on the matter – as well as media reports – Spotify is increasing its premium plan prices so that it can “keep innovating.” This marks the first instance of Spotify Premium getting a price hike since its inception 11 years ago.
This development is hardly unexpected, given that Spotify faces increasing competition as the music streaming landscape evolves, leading the company to invest in new features, content, and artist partnerships. Not to mention its rivals have already enacted such steps – Apple did so in October 2022, Amazon enacted the same a few months later, and YouTube was the latest to do so last week. If anything, Spotify lagged behind its competitors when it comes to price hikes.
The price hikes are coming to over 50 countries, the company noted. They include the US (obviously), the UK, Ireland, Israel, Cyprus, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, and France. Some of the other countries are Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and Greece. Existing subscribers in the affected regions, starting today, will be notified via email that elaborates on what the price hike means for their accounts.
For subscribers in the US – who so far had to pay $9.99 to retain their Premium subscription – a Premium Single subscription got a price hike of $10 per month to $10.99/month. The same increase has come to Spotify’s Premium Family and Student plans, which will now cost $16.99 and $5.99 per month. The Premium Duo plan got the biggest raise – an increase of two dollars per month to reach $14.99 per month. Premium subscribers in the UK will pay an extra £1 at £10.99 a month.
Spotify later announced in an FAQ page that it will grant its existing Premium subscribers a window of one month before the new pricing comes into effect. For those who are currently on a trial offer, they will have the same grace period after the trial ends. “Since launching in 2008, Spotify has innovated and invested to build the best audio experience for you and your favorite artists and creators. We have continually revealed new opportunities for fans and creators to connect through the power of our platform, from discovery tools like our new AI DJ, to fan-favorite shared experiences like Blend and the introduction of podcasts and audiobook content,” Spotify wrote in its official statement.
“With 200+ million Premium subscribers, we’re also proud to be the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service, giving Premium users access to on-demand and ad-free music listening, offline music downloads, and quality music streaming,” the company added
