Spotify is launching a new Basic plan in the United States just a few weeks after the platform rolled out its second price hike in less than a year.
The tier brings back the old price of $10.99 a month, and you'll receive all of the same benefits as the Premium plan except 15 hours of audiobook listening a month. That perk is not available on Basic, but access to music or podcasts will not be restricted.
What’s interesting is this option is only available to “eligible” customers, according to the announcement. You can’t sign up for the service by going to Spotify’s subscription plan web page as it’s not there. All you’ll see are the Premium plans.
A company representative told us you can see the options if you’re already a current subscriber and “you’re logged into your account on desktop” and on Android phones. It essentially serves as a downgrade for users who don’t want the audiobook perk.
iPhone owners are going to have a slightly tougher time. Because of App Store policies, the same representative told us iOS users are unable to change their Premium plan to Basic. They'll have to do it in a browser on desktop or a mobile browser.
Basic Family Plan
9To5Google, in their coverage, discovered that “there’s also a new ‘Basic Family’ plan,” which costs $16.99. This second tier offers most of the same benefits as a Premium Family subscription. You’ll gain access to Spotify Kids, parents can “control content marked as explicit," and you can cancel at any time. There are a few differences.
Users won’t be given up to six Premium or Kids accounts as they’ll all be considered Basic. And much like the individual Basic plan, families won’t have the audiobook listening hours. The same representative from earlier confirmed that the Basic Family Plan exists as an option. Beyond that, everything else stays the same as the other Spotify Premium plans, and we won’t see any changes or a third price hike.
Global expansion
Earlier this month, a Spotify Basic Individual option appeared in the UK for a brief period of time before it was pulled. Spotify has followed through, as the company rep informed us that the option is available in the UK and Australia. They also offer a Basic Duo plan to complement its Premium version, but they didn't give us a price tag for other additions.
No word on anything relating to the long-awaited HiFi tier, although we suspect more new will come out soon. On June 11, a leak surfaced online from Bloomberg revealing what the platform may do with the HiFi tier. It may be released as an add-on to Spotify Premium and not exist as a standalone service.
We asked if the company could give us an updates on the upcoming service, but they didn't tell us much stating that they have "nothing to share at this time."
Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best music streaming services for 2024.
