Spotify is getting ready a revamp of its plans and costs, in keeping with a brand new report from Bloomberg. This can embody worth hikes in a number of main markets, and there will even be a brand new plan that does not embody audiobooks.
The costs will go up by about $1 per 30 days for particular person plans to $2 per 30 days for the household plans and duo plans within the UK, Australia, Pakistan, and two different unnamed markets, the report says. Within the US, its largest market, a worth hike is coming “later this 12 months”, in keeping with “folks acquainted with the matter”.
The upper pricing will allegedly assist cowl the price of audiobooks, which Spotify has just lately began providing. Spotify subscribers rise up to fifteen hours of audiobook listening per 30 days. However after all the corporate must pay publishers of the audiobooks for all that listening time it is providing for ‘free’, though to this point it is solely made cash for audiobooks from listeners who exceed the aforementioned restrict.
Spotify can also be apparently going to introduce a brand new plan that may supply solely music and podcasts, with out audiobooks. This shall be priced the identical as its present particular person premium plan. Customers of this upcoming tier should pay for audiobooks. So mainly, it goes like this: first, Spotify provides audiobooks to the present premium plan, then it hikes its worth up however launches a brand new plan that’s equivalent sans audiobooks.
All of it appears designed to hook folks on the premium plan into audiobooks thus getting them to remain on this plan even when the value will get bumped, whereas those that do not care about audiobooks might want to leap via the additional hoop of switching plans each time the brand new one launches.
However wait, there’s extra. A “supremium” plan (severely) is coming too, providing you with entry to high-fidelity audio, “amongst different options” that are not detailed. This has been rumored for years, so perhaps it is lastly dropping in 2024?
Spotify has just lately been wanting (virtually to a determined stage, it might appear) to diversify from providing simply music, because it’s paying report labels and artists about 70% of its income. Thus, its podcast push was born a number of years in the past, and just lately we bought audiobooks. However this mockingly has alarmed its companions within the music trade, who now worry they are going to be getting much less cash from Spotify. And their response to that worry has allegedly been pushing Spotify to lift costs.
Final 12 months, Spotify hiked its costs for the primary time since introducing its premium tier, and the transfer appears to have had no detrimental results in anyway, as its userbase grew by 113 million – the most effective progress it is ever seen. On the finish of 2023, Spotify had 602 million complete customers, of which 236 million had been paying prospects. The success of final 12 months’s worth hike has given the corporate’s administration the boldness to do it once more.