Spotify raising prices for subscribers again this year

Spotify is cranking up the volume, err, subscription price, for the second time in a year. Whether it’s to cover the increased cost of licensing music or to fund future complaints against Apple, Spotify will start charging subscribers $1 to $2 more per month, depending on their plan.

Lucas Shaw and Ashley Carman at Bloomberg have the story. Per the report, Spotify plans to raise prices, in part, to cover the cost of adding audiobooks to the streaming music service. Separately, Spotify is planning a new tier that does not include audiobooks.

In short, Spotify added 15 hours of audiobook streaming to the music subscription service at no cost, now plans to raise the price of that plan to cover the cost, and will once again sell a plan without audiobooks.

Bloomberg says five markets including the UK, Australia, and Pakistan will be first to see the price adjustments starting this month. Later this year, Spotify subscribers in the United States will see the same price increases.

The report highlights that this will mark Spotify’s second price increase in a year. That comes after not raising the price ever since 2011 until 2023. Apparently, the company has been pleased with subscriber growth in the face of higher subscription costs.

Both Apple Music and Spotify have charged $10.99 for an individual monthly plan since last summer. Apple Music, however, does not include an audiobook tie-in. Still no word on when Spotify will release its hifi plan… You can read the full report at Bloomberg.