When it comes to music streaming, Spotify continues to be one of the best bets. At the end of 2023, the service had around 602 million active users, of which around 236 million paid for Spotify Premium, the ad-free service level. Then, last year, Spotify introduced audiobooks to its streaming library in some locations, another compelling reason to sign up. However, in an effort to balance the cost of this addition, Spotify prices will increase. Imagine how much?
Attention: see how much Spotify prices will increase!
According to information from Bloomberg, Spotify is planning to increase the price of its premium subscription level by 1 Euro for individuals and 2 Euros for couple and family plans, until the end of April. This price increase will affect several of Spotify’s main markets. It is not known what it will be like in Portugal, but it is likely that the price may change here as well.
In addition to the general increase in the Premium subscription tier, Spotify is also planning to add a secondary paid tier. It will be priced at the normal premium. This new subscription tier will offer the usual ad-free access to music and podcasts, but audiobooks will have to be purchased separately.
The values have not changed so much
For most of Spotify’s lifetime, the service has maintained its consistent pricing plans, only making its first price increase last year. The reasons for these price increases were twofold. Firstly, efforts to expand Spotify’s offering.
– Advertisement –
However, the main impetus for the price rise is the increase in pressure from record labels. The reason Spotify management decided to add audiobooks to the service was to diversify content and reduce the service’s dependence on the music industry. However, this caused friction with record labels, who were concerned that their royalty payments would decrease and pushed for service prices to increase to make up the difference. This same pressure was felt by Spotify’s biggest competitors, Apple and Amazon, who also enacted price increases for similar reasons.
It’s not immediately clear how these price increases and plan changes will affect Spotify’s subscriber base. This is although it is important to note that after the last price increase in 2023, the service actually gained more than 110 million new users.
