For many years, Spotify held strong at its monthly subscription of $9.99, but that changed last July when Premium jumped up to $10.99. Now it appears that the leading subscription music service is planning another price hike — and not waiting nearly as long this time. Bloomberg reports that the cost will go up by between $1 and $2 in the UK, Australia, Pakistan, and two other markets by the end of April, with an increase planned for US customers “later this year.”
But there’s one important asterisk here: this all assumes that you’re interested in listening to audiobooks on Spotify. Part of the reason for these subscription increases is to cover their cost, after all. Spotify has already grown to become the second-largest player in audiobooks behind Audible — and it’s quickly expanding that effort into new countries.
For anyone happy to get their audiobook fix elsewhere, Spotify will introduce a new “basic” plan at the current $10.99 Premium rate that doesn’t include them while still bundling music and podcasts. Hopefully, that doesn’t mean you’ll have to settle for basic audio quality, however.
Speaking of which, the company still reportedly plans to roll out its long-rumored “Supremium” plan that will include lossless streaming and other features; in recent weeks, some Spotify users have noticed a Dolby Atmos logo on the app’s Now Playing screen. That’s a strong indication that spatial audio could be on the way as part of Supremium’s set of bonus features.
Spotify hasn’t yet officially announced the pending price increase.