ALBAWABA – Spotify is reportedly planning to bump its monthly subscription fees by $1-$2 in 5 main markets before the new prices reach the US, as the company hopes to boost its bet on audiobooks.
Bloomberg sources indicated that Spotify will increase prices for individual plans by $1, for family and duo plans by $2, in regions like UK, Australia and Pakistan, before the price hike comes to the US sometime at the end of the year.
The price increase will assist Spotify in covering the expense of audiobooks, a recently launched service similar to Amazon’s Audible that allows users to listen for up to 15 hours of recorded books a week for free.
In an earlier report by the Swedish music streaming company, it notes that it pays 70 percent of what it makes from music back to record labels and artists, with 236 million paying customers by the end of 2023, Spotify says it paid at least $9 billion in royalties, causing the company to look at new revenue sources.
Spotify will introduce a new basic membership tier for $11 a month, the same amount that the premium plan currently goes for, Bloomberg adds, which would include the well-known music and podcast services but without access to audiobooks.
Another membership plan coming to the platform, Bloomberg adds, is a higher priced tier that would include audiobooks as well as high-fidelity audio, despite Amazon Music and Apple Music providing free HiFi audio streaming as part of their basic memberships.
Reported price hikes are coming from who Bloomberg claims to be sources familiar with the company, Spotify on the other hand, which saw an 8 percent surge in its stock price after the report, is yet to comment on or announce the price increase nor the new plans.
Spotify stock chart for Apr. 04 2024, showing 8.23 percent increase in share price after Bloomberg's report of the company's plans to increase subscription prices (TradingView)
