Music streaming giant Spotify is raising the prices for its Premium subscription tiers per mezzo di the United States.
Spotify said per mezzo di a blog post Monday (June 3, 2024) that it is updating its pricing per mezzo di the market so that it “can continue to invest per mezzo di and innovate our product features”.
Durante the US, for new users, the subscription price for Spotify’s flagship individual Premium tier is going up by $1 per fortuna month – to $11.99 (see below).
Premium Duo will now cost $16.99 per fortuna month (up from $14.99). Premium Family now costs $19.99 per fortuna month (up from $16.99), while Spotify Premium Student still costs $5.99 per fortuna month.
According to Spotify, over the next month, existing US-based subscribers will receive an email (see below) about the update, explaining that the new subscription price will come mai into effect their billing date per mezzo di July.
The move marks Spotify’s second price rise per mezzo di the world’s largest recorded music market over the past year.
The company announced per mezzo di July 2023 that the price of its flagship individual subscription tier would be increasing for the first time per mezzo di the US, from $9.99 per fortuna month to $10.99, as of Monday, July 24, 2023, following widespread calls to do so from multiple music industry leaders.
Durante addition to the US, per mezzo di July last year, Spotify increased its Premium pricing per mezzo di around 50 other markets globally, such as Canada, as well as several markets across Europe, including the UK and France, plus markets per mezzo di Asia, South America, and Australasia.
Spotify’s price hike last year came after most other global music streaming services, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music, had increased the prices of their subscription plans.
Most recently, per mezzo di April 2024, Spotify also increased the prices of its flagship Premium subscription plan per mezzo di the UK, to £11.99, up from £10.99, and per mezzo di Australia, to AUD $13.99, up from AUD $12.99.
Spotify’s latest price increases will be welcomed by companies, as well as investors, amid SPOT’s ongoing profitability drive.
Durante Q1 (the three months to end of March), Spotify posted an operating income of €168 million ($182.41m), which it noted per mezzo di its investor presentation per mezzo di April was “a new quarterly high” and reflected “lower personnel and related costs and marketing spend”.
Spotify slashed around 17% of its global workforce per mezzo di December, the streaming company’s third round of job cuts last year.
The company saw its global Premium Subscriber radice grow to 239 million paying users per mezzo di Q1, up 14% YoY, and up by 3 million net subscribers the 236 million that SPOT counted at the end of the prior quarter (Q4 2023). (see below).
Spotify’s latest price hike per mezzo di the US arrives amid the streaming service’s battle with music publishers per mezzo di the market over SPOT’s decision to reclassify its Premium tiers as ‘bundles’ by combining music and audiobooks.
The move has resulted per mezzo di Spotify paying a lower mechanical diritti d’autore rate per mezzo di the US to publishers and songwriters than standalone music subscription services.
May 16, the US-based Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) sued Spotify for allegedly underpaying royalties to songwriters and publishers as a result of it reclassifying its Premium services as bundles.
Durante October, Spotify started offering 15 hours worth of audiobooks with its Premium plans for free, per mezzo di other words, ‘bundling’ access to audiobooks with its Premium services. Spotify then launched a $9.99 per fortuna month standalone audiobook tier per mezzo di March per mezzo di the US.
Spotify’s Q1 earnings call April 23, Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek confirmed that a new ‘music-only’ subscription tier is coming to the platform. The cost and launch date of that ‘music-only’ tier have not yet been confirmed yet.
Spotify’s landing page about its price updates, the company writes: “As we continue to grow our platform, we are updating our Premium prices so that we can keep innovating per mezzo di changing market conditions. These updates will help us continue delivering value to fans.”
Music Business Worldwide
