Spotify Is About to Increase Its Prices Yet Again
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After Spotify's subscription price remained dormant for years, it experienced an increase for the very first time in 2023, to $10.99 per month. Approximately two years down the road, the next price increase is due.
Spotify to Raise Prices Worldwide
Spotify currently costs $11.99 per month for an Individual subscription, $16.99 for a Duo subscription, and $19.99 for the Family plan in the US. The company recently announced it will be raising prices across all subscriptions worldwide in the coming month. This will affect both new and existing customers, regardless of whether they are subscribed to an Individual, Duo, or Family plan. The exact price increase may vary by region. South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region will be affected. Still, it is unclear whether there will be a separate increase for users residing in North America.
According to Spotify, the price increase is necessary to continue developing its product range and functions. The aim is to provide users with an enhanced experience, according to the official announcement. Nevertheless, for many customers, this move is questionable concerning the actual service, as functions have been removed recently.
More Money for Less Performance?
Just a few weeks ago, Spotify severely restricted the usability of audio playback and audiobooks within the regular music subscription. While this content was previously available without a time limit, it is now limited to 15 hours per month. If you want to consume more content, you will have to pay for additional listening time — ten additional hours currently cost $12.99.
Many users see this change as a clear deterioration in the service. What's more, the monthly quota of 15 hours is sometimes not even enough to complete a single audiobook, and additional top-ups can get quite expensive. Classic audiobook platforms like Audible or Thalia offer one audiobook per month in their subscriptions, regardless of its length, and allow users to keep the audiobooks once they have downloaded them, even after canceling their subscription.
Differences in Features
It remains to be seen whether other music services like Apple Music, Deezer, or Amazon Music will follow the increasing price trend. During the previous round of price increases, the competition also raised its prices shortly after Spotify did. As the repertoire of service providers in the music sector hardly differs from one another, price, ease of use, and the technical features are often the decisive factors for users when it comes to picking one.
Spotify continues to rely on extensive personalization functions and a strong, algorithm-driven recommendation catalog. The numerous individual playlists and curated suggestions are considered the service's strength. However, other providers have also worked out their advantages — for instance, better audio quality with Apple Music or making it cheaper by combining offers such as a YouTube Premium package with Google.
According to Spotify, the specific price increase will be communicated to all affected customers by email over the next month. Anyone who wishes to maintain their subscription must accept the new price, with the only alternative being to cancel or switch to another provider.
