Spotify Raises Price of Premium Subscription in US
Spotify is increasing the price of its Premium subscription service by $1 a month in the United States.
The monthly price of an individual Premium subscription will increase from $11.99 to $12.99, effective in February, the company said in a Thursday (Jan. 15) press release.
“Occasional updates to pricing across our markets reflect the value that Spotify delivers, enabling us to continue offering the best possible experience and benefit artists,” Spotify said in the release.
The benefits of a Premium subscription include ad-free music and music videos, the ability to download music and listen to it offline, the ability to play songs in any order, lossless audio and a monthly allocation of audiobook listening hours.
This is Spotify’s third price increase in two-and-a-half years. The company raised the price of an individual Premium subscription in the U.S. to $10.99 in August 2023 and to $11.99 in July 2024.
Spotify reported in November that during the previous quarter, its number of monthly active users grew 11% year over year to 713 million and its number of subscribers climbed 12% year over year to 281 million.
“We’re shipping faster than ever,” Spotify founder Daniel Ek, who was CEO at the time and has since transitioned to chairman, said in a November press release. “And we have the tools we need—pricing, product innovation, operational leverage and eventually the ads turnaround—to deliver both revenue growth and profit expansion. It all comes back to user fundamentals, and that’s where we are: 700 million users who keep coming back, engagement at all-time highs.”
During that quarter, Spotify’s product releases included audio mixing for playlists, new personalization surfaces for artist recommendations, and a Spotify in ChatGPT integration that allows ChatGPT users to receive personalized song or podcast recommendations directly through the artificial intelligence platform.
As Spotify expands beyond music into audiobooks, podcasts and merchandise, the role of payments becomes more complex, Sandra Alzetta, vice president and global head of commerce and customer service at Spotify, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in September.
Each new vertical introduces new expectations and reinforces the need for flexibility, Alzetta said.
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