Back in April, ChannelNews reported on Spotify’s plans to raise subscription prices across major markets including the US, UK, and Australia.
That price hike is now being rolled out, with customers in the US being the first to face the brunt of it.
In the US, Spotify is officially raising its Premium subscription rates from next month. It is increasing its Individual plan from US$11 (A$16.43) to $12 (A$ 17.92) monthly and its Duo plan from $15 (A$22.41) to $17(A$25.39) monthly. However, its Family plan is going up by $3 (A$4.48), increasing from $17 (A$25.39) to $20 (A$29.87) monthly. The only subscribers in the US who are being spared the price hike are students, who will continue to pay $6 (A$8.96) monthly.
The latest round of price hikes for Australia haven’t yet been announced, but are believed to be imminent.
At present, in Australia, the Spotify Premium Individual plan costs A$13.99 per month, the Premium Duo plan costs A$19.99 per month, the Premium Family plan costs A$23.99 per month, and the Premium Student plan costs A$6.99 per month.
It was only last year that Spotify had hiked its prices. Before that, Spotify hadn’t raised its fees since launching a decade-and-a-half ago.
The decision to raise prices hasn’t, thus far, adversely impacted its subscriber numbers and has instead significantly boosted revenue.
In April, Spotify released its first quarter earnings in which it confirmed that the total monthly active users (MAU) for Q1 2024 stood at 615 million, up 19 per cent over the 515 million MAUs in Q1 2023.
Its total revenue for Q1 2024 was approximately A$6.02 billion (Eur3.64 billion), a significant 20 per cent increase from around A$5.01 billion (Eur3.04 billion) in the same quarter last year.
Also, for the first time in its history, gross profit crossed A$1.65 billion (Eur1 billion) in Q1 2024.
