All four Spotify subscription plans have increased in price by $1/month in the United States, following similar moves by Apple and Amazon.
Spotify has announced updated pricing for all of its four paid plans, marking the first price increase since its inception twelve years ago.
The Premium plan has gone from $10/month to $11/month. Duo has increased from $13/month to $15/month. The Family tier has jumped from $16/month to $17/month, and the Student one is now $6/month instead of $5/month.
Spotify prices go up across the board
Similar price increases are announced for other countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, the monthly subscription price of Spotify Premium has gone from £10 to £11, Duo from £14 to £15 and Family from £17 to £18. Interestingly, the Student plan costs the same £6/month as before.
The European Union is seeing similar price increase: Spotify Premium has gone from €10 to €11, Duo from €13 to €15, Family from €16 to €18 and Student from €5 to €6. Subscribers will see the new prices applied in the next billing cycle.
The company also published an FAQ on the price increase.
“Existing Spotify Premium plan subscribers will be notified via email and given a one-month grace period before the new price becomes effective unless they cancel before the grace period ends,” it notes.
Countries where Spotify has raised subscription prices
Spotify has confirmed that the price increase will go into effect in the following countries: Andorra, Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Croatia, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, San Marino, Thailand, Türkiye, United States and Kosovo.
The rising cost of music licensing
In 2022, Apple Music increased its subscription prices across the board, with the individual subscription rising from $10 to $11. The iPhone maker said the price change reflected an increase in licensing costs.
Spotify has failed to consistently post profitable quarters for many years, and raising the subscription price is one way to appease its investors.
“So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world,” the company explained in an announcement post published in the Spotify Newsroom. “These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform.”
Amazon followed Apple’s move by increasing the cost of an individual subscription to $9/month for Prime subscribers or $11/month for non-Prime subscribers. Even Google jacked up the monthly rate of YouTube Premium from $12 to $14.
Spotify is the most popular music streaming service, with 44.4 million paid subscribers in the United States vs. Apple Music’s 32.6 million paid subscribers.