Spotify announces details of new price hike
In another hit for music fans during the cost of living crisis, Spotify are putting up their prices again. After their last price hike in July 2023, their subscription service is getting more expensive for the second time in a year.
Prices are set to go up by $1 per month for individual plans and $2 per month for duo or family plans. In the UK, this will be the equivalent of a £0.79 to £1.58 rise. This is set to impact America, the UK, Australia and beyond.
Recently, Spotify has added a lot of new features to the service. Most notably, premium subscribers have gained access to an expansive audiobook collection as part of their purchase, helping the platform move into a new area of media. The platform also recently launched paid-for learning courses with prices that range between £11 and £240.
However, for music fans who don’t want audiobook access and won’t use any of these additional features, Spotify plans to launch a basic plan. Per Bloomberg, at £11 per month, the plan is essentially what subscribers used to have, similar to the other premium options, just without the literary library.
As another money-making scheme, there are also rumours that the platform will be rolling out a super premium subscription. After Neil Young hit out at the platform’s quality, calling it “the #1 streaming of low res music in the world”, this higher tier subscription would apparently offer higher quality audio as one perk.
All of this comes in the wake of significant profit pressure on the platform. Spotify has a history of making losses, dating back to its origins in 2008. The price hikes for subscribers are one way they’re attempting to bring in more money.
The other way is more controversial, as they announced a restructuring of their royalties process in 2023. This new rule means that artists need to hit a minimum threshold for streams before receiving any compensation, especially hitting small and independent artists.
Since this new process, along with their 2023 price hike, Spotify made a profit for the first time in a year at the end of last year. While clearly proving the process to be a profitable success to them, this new raise in subscription fees likely won’t go down well amongst customers.
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