Spotify is one of the most popular streaming services in the world. In fact, as of the third quarter of 2023, the company had almost one-third of the entire music streaming market. Needless to say, the company is a juggernaut in the space, so the changes that they make to their subscriptions are felt heavily.
Earlier this month, the price of a Spotify Premium plan went up by a dollar in the United States because audiobooks were introduced to the platform. Now, Spotify has put a new Basic plan in place, which simply put, is the old Premium plan (sans audiobooks) and at the exact same price.
Spotify's New Basic Plan Is The Company's Realization That Not Everyone Cares About Audiobooks
Earlier this year, Spotify made the decision to introduce audiobooks to the platform. Considering podcasts are a thing on it, it's hard to criticize the decision. However, it did become easier to criticize when the regular Premium plan that a lot of people are subscribed to went up in price — from $10.99 to $11.99 each month — to account for the new catalog.
The only problem with that move is that not everyone will be listening to audiobooks on Spotify (of which you only get 15 hours of listening a month, which is at most two books). Personally, I don't even listen to podcasts, so if there was a way to pay less and get rid of the extra bulk pushing up the price, I'd be a very happy man.
Apparently, Spotify went down a similar path of reasoning. Now, you can subscribe to what the company calls the Basic plan. This plan costs $10.99, like Premium used to, and it offers you access to only music and podcasts — again, like Premium used to. In fact, it doesn't take the most savvy mind to realize that this is simply just a rebranding of the previous Premium plan.
It's a bit annoying since the company could have introduced a new plan to include audiobooks, but instead, they converted the old plan. This means that you're going to keep paying Spotify a dollar extra each month unless you manually go and switch over to the new Basic plan. That explains why they decided to do things the way they have.
2024 May Finally Be The Year Where We See Spotify With Lossless Audio
Speaking of new plans, don't be surprised if this is the year when Spotify finally decides to introduce an even more premium plan that includes the long-awaited Spotify Hi-Fi feature. Spotify is a major player but doesn't have any support for lossless audio the way that Apple Music and Tidal do. It's late in the game, but delay isn't denial, and I'd be extremely happy to see that feature finally land.
The rumors say that the new plan is going to stack an extra $5 on top of the existing Premium plan, which might mean a price of $16.99 a month. I listen to a lot of music, so I can say it'd be worth it for me, but do you consider it to be worth that price? Let me know in the comments!
