It sounds like Spotify Premium is about to get a bit more expensive this month.
That's according to a Bloomberg report which claims Spotify plans to increase its subscriptions by $1 to $2 monthly in five regions by the end of April, including the UK, Australia and Pakistan.
The United States isn't dodging the price increase either, it's just getting a little longer to enjoy the old pricing, as the report says Spotify Premium users in the U.S. won't see the jump until later in 2024.
Why is Spotify increasing prices again?
Recently, Spotify introduced free audiobooks as part of its Premium plan, apparently as a way to get more users to sign up. With a paid plan, Spotify users can listen to up to 15 hours of audiobooks per month, which is a great deal, since it's an added value to the service you're already paying for.
It becomes less of a good deal when that value-add becomes too much for Spotify to shoulder, causing a price increase. According to the report, audiobooks are the main reason Spotify has decided to increase its prices.
I can't say I'm surprised by this move — Spotify is paying book publishers for these books and only making money from users who exceed the 15-hour time limit. Still, even from outside looking in it's not hard to see how this could be a money-losing plan that would require an adjustment on Spotify's part to make more fiscal sense.
A new plan emerges
According to Bloomberg sources, Spotify is planning to introduce a new plan that will keep the same $11 cost but won't feature audiobooks. So essentially, the company is returning to where it started, offering music and podcasts only for people on this plan. Users on this plan will still have access to audiobooks, but they'll need to pay for them.
It's not clear at this point if users on the current Premium plan will need to go out of their way to downgrade to the new plan without audiobooks, or if the audiobook version that costs extra will be the default. I'm guessing it'll be the latter since that's the current plan Premium users are on, and the one without audiobooks is considered a new plan, even if it costs the same as the old one.
