According to a Bloomberg report, Spotify plans to increase subscription prices again in various markets by the end of April. According to one of the sources, the increase this time will be $1-2 per month for some subscribers in the UK, Australia, Pakistan and a few other unnamed countries. US listeners can expect a similar increase in 2023 and This situation is likely to affect France as well.
But there is a problem: price increase will not apply to all tiers of Spotify Premium. The increase is mainly aimed at users who want it. Access Spotify’s audiobook library. As a reminder, the streaming giant quickly became the second-largest audiobook provider behind Amazon’s Audible service.
Spotify will see price increase
To meet the needs of listeners who do not need audiobooks, Spotify will launch a new “basic” Premium plan that will retain the current price of $10.99 per month. This base tier will include music and podcasts, but not audiobook content.
For audiobook lovers willing to pay more, Spotify’s current Premium plans will include an extra $1 to $2 for book deals. Subscribers to premium family/multi-account plans will be able to benefit from an increase of up to $2.
This pricing change comes just nine months after Spotify increased its Individual Premium plan from $9.99 per month to $10.99 per month last July. Competitors such as Amazon Music and Tidal have also increased their prices over the same period, but now offer a much more competitive price/quality ratio.
We already know that in France, an increase in the premium subscription price is planned due to the government, and therefore French users may face a twofold increase in 2024. If such a rapid new price increase would disappoint some Spotify users, the company could mitigate that by improving the streaming experience. Spotify is working on a new “Suprem” layer that will offer lossless audio quality and spatial audio like Dolby Atmos.
