Skip to main content

Spotify is getting more expensive, again

Spotify on an iPhone.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Just days after Spotify CEO Daniel Ek referred to “the cost of creating content being close to zero,” the company he leads is increasing prices. Again. Spotify today announced that it’s going to be more expensive — “adjusting Premium prices” is the official line — in the U.S. so “that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experience.”

Here’s the bottom line on the new Spotify cost:

  • An individual Premium subscription is going from $11 a month to $12 a month.
  • A Duo subscription is going from $15 a month to $17 a month.
  • A Family subscription is going from $17 a month to $20 a month.
  • Student rates remain at $6 a month.
Recommended Videos

It’s the second price increase for Spotify in a little less than a year. Prices went up by about $1 per plan (Duo went up $2) in July 2023. The rationale not even 365 days ago? “So that we can keep innovating.” (Spotify at the time also noted “changing market conditions” and that the higher fees “will help us continue delivering value to fans.”)

Please enable Javascript to view this content

All that innovating still, however, lacks any sort of high-res audio option, which has been in the works for years.

The new Spotify pricing goes into effect immediately for new subscribers. Current subscribers will get an email over the next month alerting them to the price increase. Spotify also said that if you’re currently on a trial account, you’ll get one month at the current price before being bumped up to the new prices.

Spotify is available in 184 countries and had 615 million monthly active users as of March 31, 2024. Some 239 million of those have Spotify Premium accounts, up 14% from 210 million year over year for that period. Spotify saw 3.247 billion euros in Premium revenue for the first quarter of 2024, with another 389 million euros in advertising revenue on its free tier.

Phil Nickinson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
YouTube TV prices are going up again in 2025
YouTube TV on Roku.

"Nothing is certain except death and taxes," Benjamin Franklin apparently said in 1789. If he were alive today, he may very well have added, "... and streaming subscription price increases." Yes, that's my way of saying that -- despite reports to the contrary -- YouTube TV is jacking the price of its base subscription by $10 per month starting January 13, 2025, according to the following email sent to customers on December 12:
YouTube TV has always worked hard to offer you the content you love, delivered the way you want, with features that make it easy to enjoy the best of live TV.

‌To keep up with the rising cost of content and the investments we make in the quality of our service, we’re updating our monthly price from $72.99/month to $82.99/month starting January 13, 2025.

Read more
Apple Music adds three new radio stations for Latin, club, and chill fans
An iPhone displaying the Radio tab in Apple Music.

Apple Music has just doubled the number of its live hosted radio stations from three to six, with the addition of Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill. The new stations are available now, from anywhere in the world. They join the existing radio lineup that includes the flagship Apple Music 1, Apple Music Country, and Apple Music Hits. Despite that they live under the Apple Music brand, you don't need an Apple Music subscription to access these stations -- they're available for free in the Apple Music app on both mobile and desktop platforms or on the web.

Apple Música Uno, as the name suggests, is a dedicated station for global Latin music, hosted at launch by Becky G. She'll be joined by fellow Latin stars Rauw Alejandro and Grupo Frontera, who will each host their own shows.

Read more
Spotify Wrapped 2024: how to find your stats and the new Creator Wrapped
Three phone screenshots of Spotify Wrapped 2024 on a yellow background.

There's something immensely satisfying about looking at a year's worth of listening condensed down to a neatly packaged presentation. We're now able to get this from a few different streaming services -- yesterday saw the release of both Apple Music Replay 2024 and the first time Amazon has gotten into the game with Amazon Music Delivered 2024. Spotify, though, has been doing it for almost a decade, and today we get this year's iteration of Spotify Wrapped 2024. A similar program started in 2015 under the name "Year in Music," was rebranded as Wrapped in 2016, and has been going strong and growing ever since. For 2024, Spotify is adding a new way to feed you all your streaming info -- an AI podcast.

You can still get your streaming info as you have in the past, as a series of Instagram-style story cards scrolling to your favorite tunes of the year, you can also get that information presented to you by two AI-generated podcasters. The new feature, called Your Wrapped AI Podcast, is powered by Google's NotebookLM.

Read more