In what is becoming an increasingly common thing, Spotify has announced an increase to pricing in the US for its Premium subscription and some other tiers.
Interestingly, Spotify is not increasing the prices of all of its subscriptions – although it is only the Basic plan which remains with an unchanged fee. SO, what is changing, when, by how much, and why?
In fact, it is not just the US that is being hit with a price hike; Estonia and Latvia are getting the same treatment. It is not clear whether other countries will be hit in the coming weeks as well, but in a blog post about the changes, Spotify says:
We’re updating the price of Spotify. Over the next month, Premium subscribers across the U.S., Estonia, and Latvia will receive an email explaining what this update means for their subscriptions (see example image below and link to the full list of Premium features and benefits here). New subscribers can find the latest pricing by visiting spotify.com/premium.
Occasional updates to pricing across our markets reflect the value that Spotify delivers, enabling us to continue offering the best possible experience and benefit artists.
As the image shared by Spotify of the email being sent out makes clear, the price of a Premium subscription is increasing from $12 per month to $13 per month.
Other increases see the Duo plan jump from $17 to $19 per month, and the Family plan from $20 to $22 per month. Even students are being asked to pay more, with the Student plan jumping from $6 per month to $7 per month.
It is usually the case that when a company increases its subscription prices, there is a drop in customers – but this does not seem to be happening for Spotify. The streaming music service has managed to make itself so indispensable to so many people that it appears able to get away with larger and more frequent price increases than would be tolerated elsewhere. While this is clearly good news for Spotify, it would suggest that these increases are set to continue. The only real questions are how frequently will Spotify try to push prices up, and just how high can it take them before there is a real backlash?
For current subscribers, the new prices will kick in when the next monthly payment is due, and for new subscribers the higher price is in effect immediately.
If you are a Spotify subscriber, where does this sit with you? Of course, no one likes the idea of paying more money, but is it something you’re willing to stomach a little longer?
