It's everyone's least favorite time to be a Spotify subscriber — the streaming giant is increasing the price of its service again. Plans are increasing by as much as $3 per month, so it might be time to reevaluate whether Spotify is the best music streaming service for your needs.
The official announcement comes shortly after rumors broke that the company plans to increase the cost of its popular music streaming subscriptions. The company took to its blog to reveal the price increases. It also said that subscribers will receive an email letting them know about the impending price increase.
Starting with the Individual plan, Spotify is bumping it by $1 to $11.99 monthly. That's not a huge jump, but relative to the original cost, it's just under a 10% increase, which makes the increase feel proportionately larger.
The Duo plan is getting a $2 monthly bump to $16.99, which makes sense as the company appears to be trying to get $1 per active user.
Following the same pricing trend, the Family plan is going up by $3 per month to $19.99. While this might seem like the worst deal, if you have more than three people using the Family plan, the increase per user is actually lower than the other plans (it allows for up to six individual users on the plan).
The Student plan is staying the same this time at $5.99 monthly. If you're eligible for this subscription option, enjoy the lower price while you can, as Spotify Premium for under $6 per month is a great deal.
The new rates will start in July for existing subscribers. If you're new to Spotify and thinking about signing up, the new prices are already listed on the company's website, so you'll be subject to them now.
This is sure to upset plenty of Spotify users. It'll be interesting to see if subscriber numbers drop because of the increased cost or if most users will just ride it out because their listening history is attached to the service. If you decide to cancel Spotify Premium, here's how to do it.
Personally, I switched to YouTube Music for a while. I enjoyed it, but the social aspect of Spotify (just about everyone I know uses it), ultimately sucked me back despite the frequent price increases.
