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For the second time in a year, Spotify is hiking prices on its streaming service.
The music, podcast, and audiobook streamer said on Monday that it will be increasing prices across three of its monthly plans starting in the July billing cycle. Spotify Premium will increase from $11 to $12 a month, while Spotify Duo is jumping from $15 to $17. The company’s Family plan will go from $17 to $20 a month. Spotify still offers a free plan for those who don’t want to pay, but that option doesn’t allow for offline or ad-free listening, among other features available in its Premium subscription.
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“So that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experience, we occasionally update our prices,” Spotify said in a blog post accompanying its announcement.
Spotify has been actively increasing prices on its service for the past year. For the first time in its history last July, Spotify increased its prices for US subscribers. Just last month, the company increased its international pricing. This announcement means Spotify has hiked prices for the second time in a year in the US and for the third time globally.
The move also means that Spotify is now more expensive than some of its counterparts. Apple Music, for instance, costs $11 a month for an individual plan and $17 for a family plan. The same is true for streaming provider Tidal. Amazon Music starts at $10 per month on an individual plan and jumps to $17 per month on a family plan. YouTube Music also starts at $11 per month, while family plans are $17 per month. All of these services also offer student plans for approximately half off the individual rate.
But a higher price may not necessarily affect Spotify’s subscription retention. Spotify users are the least likely among any audio streaming platform user base to cancel their service, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing data from insights company Antenna. Indeed, the study found that even as Spotify ups its pricing, its users remain remarkably loyal to the brand.
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That said, as the pricing above suggests, streaming services have generally offered their subscriptions at the same prices. It’s possible — if not guaranteed — that Spotify’s price hike paves the way for other providers to increase their pricing. After all, if Spotify can do it without issue, maybe they can, too.
That said, no other streaming provider has announced plans to increase pricing — at least not yet. But don’t be surprised if others take Spotify’s increase as an excuse to squeeze a couple more bucks out of users in the coming months.