Spotify, the most popular music streaming service worldwide, has been in the news a lot lately – mostly for bad reasons. Its CEO, Daniel Ek, enraged users online a few days ago by calling music “content” that can be created at almost zero cost today. His controversial tweet received criticism from both users and musicians alike, and some even pointed out how little Spotify pays to the music artists.
While some are still furious over that tweet as it continues to reach more people, Spotify has made another announcement that will, again, upset more users. The music streaming service has revealed plans to increase prices of all Premium tiers for users in the US, with hikes ranging from $1 to $2.
Spotify Is Increasing Its Prices for the Second Time in Less Than a Year
Spotify was launched back in 2011, and for around 12 years, its subscription costs remained stable in the US. It announced its first-ever price hike in July last year, with subscription costs going up by $2 for the Duo tier and $1 for all other plans. Now, in less than a year, the music streaming platform is hiking its prices, yet again.
Spotify has officially announced updated prices for all its Premium tiers. The prices have already gone up for new users and will be effective starting next month for the users who are already subscribed. Here’s what has changed:
- Individual subscription is up to $12 per month from $11 per month.
- Duo subscription is going to be $17 a month from $15 per month.
- Family subscription is jumping to $20 per month from $17 a month.
- The Student plan remains unchanged at $6 per month.
With the new prices, Spotify Premium has become one of the more expensive music streaming services. Other popular platforms, for comparison, including Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music Unlimited, all start at $11 a month for their respective paid tiers. Moreover, they have another distinct advantage over Spotify.
Spotify Users Still Can’t Listen to Hi-Res Music
For Spotify, one of the biggest drawbacks now is that most of its competitors, including Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Tidal, support hi-res audio – despite being a tad cheaper.
Spotify announced Spotify HiFi back in 2021, but as of now, it's still not yet released. This shouldn’t be a big problem for casual music listeners, though some audiophiles might find a reason to switch.
Also, we hope Spotify doesn’t impose another price hike when the long-rumored Spotify HiFi feature is released. For the current hike, the music streaming service hasn’t clearly mentioned the reasons. Its newsroom post states, “So that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experience, we occasionally update our prices.”
Could Audiobooks Be Behind Spotify's Price Increase?
When it was reported last month that Spotify was planning to increase its prices soon – which has now happened – Bloomberg suggested that it was to help cover the cost of audiobooks, a new Premium feature it launched last year. Spotify offers users up to 15 hours of audiobooks a month and has over 200,000 titles available.
For users who listen to audiobooks, Spotify still remains among the best streaming platforms. However, for those who don't, other platforms currently offer better value for money – at least until Spotify HiFi is available. Here are the five best alternatives you can consider. Also, let us know in the comments how you feel about the price hike.
