- Spotify price increases could arrive in June
- Generally € 1 (around $ 1 / £ 1) Increase in individual submarines
- The disclosed image shows the “additional modules” for premium users
You do not need to ask a Magic 8-Ball if your favorite music streaming service will increase its prices this year: the answer generally seems to be yes. But while Spotify is increasing its subscription prices again, it will not do so in the United States for the moment.
According to the Financial Times, Spotify will increase the cost of an individual subscription of € 1 (around $ 1 / £ 1) in the countries of Latin America and Europe this summer, most likely in June. And it has already increased prices in other countries such as Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The push “would intensify considerably this summer,” an initiate in the newspaper told.
Although Spotify does not plan to increase in prices in the United States so far – Spotify has increased its American price for the last time in 2024 – it certainly envisages a super premium option. This would add $ 6 to the cost of a subscription of $ 11, but would be delivered with additional advantages.
Speaking of additional years, the second interesting song of Spotify News comes today from an image disclosed on X which shows text in the beta iOS spotify application saying “explore the plans and draw more from your premium experience with the additional modules”.
We do not yet know what these complementary modules will be, or when this kind of thing will happen – Spotify Hifi leaks have been appearing in the application for years, and we have still not seen this launch. But optional complementary modules are an interesting idea, potentially allowing people to get more what they really want.
It should be noted that Spotify already offers “recharges” for audio books as an option you can buy. Premium users get a number of audio listening hours included in the price, and if you want more hours, you can buy them.
Why do prices increase again?
The record companies want to bring what they call “Streaming 2.0”, and what I call “bill more money for the things you have used as standard”. For example, the FT says that an option envisaged is to restrict new music versions to subscribers who pay super premium services.
This does not only apply to Spotify; The FT says that Amazon, Apple and Youtube also prepare their own additional levels.
The reason is quite simple: the era of massive growth in the number of users is over. Trade body L’IFPI reports that global income growth in the streaming sector has halved last year, which means that services are under pressure from shareholders to get more money from their existing users.
We have already seen that play in video streaming services. What started as a product for a price has become much more complex while streamers segled their services in ADS, without ADS and with certain advertisements, with ceilings on flows and sharing of simultaneous accounts, and with features such as 4K, HDR and Spatial Audio limited to the most expensive plans.
It is not a question whether a similar stratification will occur in music. It is a case of when.
