Spotify just dropped the news that it’s hiking its premium subscription prices outside the United States. While it has not been confirmed exactly what countries are impacted, regions like Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific are on the list.
Spotify announced that customers can expect to see an email detailing their specific new price plan hitting their inboxes over the next month. While the exact prices will vary by country, Spotify gave a little heads-up with a sample email showing an increase of €1 per month, pushingthe subscription costto €11.99. The example email states that this will start in September. So, there’s still another month before anyone needs to worry about paying a little more for Spotify.
It’s hard to say no to a price increase, because once you’ve spent years curating your perfect playlists and building up your audio library, you’re probably not going anywhere. A report fromAntennalast year even backed this up, stating that Spotify listeners in the U.S. are the least likely to cancel compared to other major video or audio streaming services.
This hit may be for regions outside the U.S., but we are overdue for a price increase. Spotify hasn’t raised the price of subscriptions in the United Statessince last year, which brought the monthly cost up to $11.99.
Those in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg have already seen price increases in recent months, so they probably won’t be hit with another one this time around. It seems like Spotify is strategically rolling these out, which makes sense and softens the blow for each increase.
In the sample email, Spotify said the increase helped innovation and did not mention employee pay, which makes sense. Beyond just music, Spotify has been pushing into new territory. The company has introduced audiobooks as part of its Premium subscription plan, which is pretty cool if you’re into that. Spotify is also home to many popular podcasts, and the company likely wants to keep this up.
There are likely many reasons for the price increase, but what’s clear is that those affected by it will be notified soon. Spotify didn’t announce any plans to bring price increases to the U.S., so we are safe over here for now.
Spotify
Spotify is a pioneer in music streaming. It features a vast library, impressive bitrate, curated and custom playlists, as well as offline streaming. Spotify is available for free and for a monthly or annual fee.
