- Spotify price hikes could be coming as soon as June
- Typically €1 (about $1/£1) increase on individual subs
- Leaked image shows “add-ons” for Premium users
You don’t need to ask a magic 8-ball whether your favorite music streaming service will up its prices this year: the answer usually seems to be yes. But while Spotify is once again increasing its subscription prices, it won’t be doing it in the US for now.
According to The Financial Times, Spotify will be upping the cost of an individual subscription by €1 (about $1/£1) in countries across Latin America and Europe this summer, most likely in June. And it’s already upped prices in other countries such as Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The push “would intensify considerably this summer,” an insider told the newspaper.
While Spotify isn’t planning a price hike in the US so far – Spotify last upped its US price in 2024 – it is definitely considering a super-premium option. That would add $6 to the cost of a $11 subscription, but would come with additional perks.
Speaking of additional perks, the second interesting bit of Spotify news today come from a leaked image on X that shows text in the Spotify iOS beta app saying “Explore plans and get more from your Premium experience with add-ons”.
We don’t yet know what those add-ons will be, or when this kind of thing will arrive – Spotify HiFi leaks have been appearing in the app for years, and we still haven’t seen that launch yet. But optional add-ons are an interesting idea, potentially enabling people to get more what they really want.
It’s worth noting that Spotify already offers “top-ups” for audiobook users as an option you can buy. Premium users get a number of audiobook listening hours included in the price, and if you want more hours, you can buy them.
Why are the prices going up again?
The record companies are keen to bring in what they call “Streaming 2.0”, and what I call “charging more money for the stuff you used to get as standard.” For example, the FT says that one option being considered is to restrict new music releases to subscribers paying for super-premium services.
This doesn’t just apply to Spotify; the FT says that Amazon, Apple and YouTube are also preparing additional super-premium tiers of their own.
The reason for this is pretty simple: the era of massive growth in user numbers is over. Trade body the IFPI reports that global revenue growth in the streaming sector halved last year, and that means the services are under pressure from shareholders to get more money from their existing users.
We’ve already seen this play out in the video streaming services. What began as one product for one price became much more complex as streamers segmented their services into with-ads, without-ads and with-some ads, with caps on simultaneous streams and account sharing, and with features such as 4K, HDR and Spatial Audio limited to the most expensive plans.
It’s not a case of whether similar stratification is going to happen in music. It’s a case of when.
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