AAs the last of the major music streaming services, market leader Spotify is increasing the price of single subscriptions in major western markets. As the Swedish company announced on Monday, instead of the highly symbolic price of $9.99, which has remained unchanged since the service started more than ten years ago, it will now cost $10.99. More than 50 markets are affected by the price increases, including the largest music market in the world, the USA, but also Great Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Austria. Meanwhile, Germany, the world’s fourth largest market for recorded music, is not (yet) included in the list.
The move was expected after first the smaller French service Deezer, earlier last year, and then Apple and Amazon Music as well as Tidal raised prices, all moving away from the 9.99 price point. All of these services also offer hi-fi quality, unlike Spotify. Spotify had increased prices in various markets in 2021. In America and Great Britain, for example, the family subscription was made more expensive in 2021. Here, too, the prices have now been adjusted: instead of $15.99, the subscription now costs $16.99 in the USA for up to six people.
The student tariff increases by one dollar to 5.99 dollars. In Germany, the monthly price is currently EUR 14.99 or EUR 4.99. Spotify boss Daniel Ek had repeatedly underlined his willingness to increase prices, without being more specific. In the past few months, there have been increasing calls from the music industry for such a step. The services pay around two thirds of their sales to the rights holders of the songs represented on the platforms.
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