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Individual plans will increase by a dollar to $10.99 in the
United States and family plans to $16.99, while duo plans will go up by $2 to
$14.99 a month, the company said Monday in a statement.
The increase for individual plans is the first in more than
a decade for the world’s largest music streamer with 515 million active monthly
listeners. The company has previously raised prices for categories like family
and student subscriptions in some markets.
Monday’s move will result in a $1-a-month price increase for
Spotify’s US plans, with the premium single now starting at $10.99, duo at
$14.99, family at $16.99 and the student plan at $5.99.
Spotify has moved in recent months to boost margins with
hundreds of layoffs and a restructuring of the podcast unit, which it had built
up with billions of dollars in investment.
The price increases come at a time when streaming services,
both audio and video, are under rising investor pressure to boost profitability
after years of prioritising user growth.
Rivals services from Apple and Amazon.com and Tidal have all
increased prices this year, while YouTube also raised prices last week on its
monthly and annual premium plans in the US for the first time since the
subscription service was launched in 2018.
Spotify, which had indicated in April that it would raise
prices in 2023, had also raised prices in 46 countries last year.
In the UK prices have increased by £1 a month, to £10.99 for
an individual plan, £14.99 for a duo and £17.99 for a family. In Australia,
prices are increasing by $1 a month for an individual, to $12.99, and by two
dollars a month for duo and family plans, to $17.99 and $20.99 respectively.
The Sweden-based company is due to report its results for
the second quarter on Tuesday.
In January the streaming giant said it was cutting about 600
jobs, or 6% of its workforce, admitting it had expanded too quickly during the
coronavirus pandemic. Co-founder and chief executive Daniel Ek said he had been
“too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth”.
The streaming giant paid a reported $100m (£73m) in 2020 for
an exclusive licensing deal with Joe Rogan, whose podcast has millions of
listeners. It also paid a rumoured $25m for an exclusive podcasting deal with
Michelle and Barack Obama in 2019, an agreement which ended last year.
And it paid a reported $20m for its deal with a media group
run by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in 2020. That
contract ended by mutual agreement in June after the couple produced just one
series for Spotify under their Archewell Audio production company.