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Spotify Increasing Subscription Prices in the US Again
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If you really want to save money, rent the CD from the library and copy it. I used to do this regularly before getting Spotify which is a great deal if you listen to a lot of different music. Plus, you can buy a $99 Spotify gift card (Canada) that gives you a whole year of premium.
I think so. For me, I am a coder, I listen to music in the background, probably been years since I have ever looked for something I like to hear on Spotify, it knows me well enough and just gives me what I want to hear. I have tried Apple Music a few times, just so bad in comparison to Spotify. At one point, I even extracted playlists from Spotify to import to Apple Music just to get some decent and consistent listening.
Equally, I hear others don't have the issue, so everyone's mileage varies. Largely though, Spotify outranks Apple Music that way.
I think finally after almost 14 years of paying for Spotify, I’m out. I was fine paying subscriptions for video and music purely for convenience, but these prices have gotten insane. I gave up video streaming subscriptions almost 2 years ago mostly because of the “password sharing crackdowns” AND continued price increases. I currently pay for the family plan and only share it with my mom and sister since my dad and brothers went on single accounts a couple of years ago leaving 3 slots open. Time to finally add music to my Plex server.
Edit: I’ll also never do Apple Music. It’s overall inferior to Spotify in many ways, but especially lacking with the Connect feature and crappy UI.
Edit: I’ll also never do Apple Music. It’s overall inferior to Spotify in many ways, but especially lacking with the Connect feature and crappy UI.
I used to use Spotify, then switched to the free version with an adblocker to skip their ads that would pop up in the middle of a song. I then switched to Apple Music a few years ago. Amusingly, to this day I still find paid Apple Music better than free Spotify.
One month of Spotify with hundreds of thousands of artists is still cheaper than the cost of ONE CD that, to be honest, how often would you listen it that same CD? And where? Anywhere you have a CD player? How many CD players do you have? Hardly convenient. Actually, not convenient at all.
This right here. $99 annual Spotify card, usable in the US also (according to BestBuy site where you can buy one). That's about $8 per month.
I have both (for a long time) and Apple Music's curated playlist are absolutely anemic. I listen to 90% one genre of music and AM is constantly suggesting anything BUT that one genre. Maybe one day Gemini will curate playlists there and be smarter about it, but right now, the playlists on Spotify are why it's worth it.
"Music is too important to me"? What the heck does that even mean? AM and Spotify both have lossless quality. Is your hearing that good that driving down the road, in your car, with road noise, etc., you can hear a difference? These arguments are absolutely foolish. If you can actually hear a difference between your FLAC files and lossless quality streaming, it won't last for long. AGE (as you get older) will take away that superhuman power of yours. And, BTW, everything you claim to be a benefit of paying for a CD, ripping it, storing it on a server, etc. (at what cost for all that), is all available on the streaming services. Of course, you wouldn't know because "you never subscribe to music streaming services". Maybe you should, for a month, to see that you can get what you have now for a fraction of the cost.
I just got an email from Paramount+ and they are raising their rates as well 🙄
It feels like Spotify does this every other month. But they never increase the amount that goes to artists. (Ask me how I know)
Maybe it’s about paying the artists who actually create the music fairly for their work. Spotify pays about .001 *cents* per stream.
That’s not true. It really only works that way for software
That’s a very unusual definition for “owning” music. Never heard anyone use that before
The person didn't say Spotify. They said ANY MUSIC SERVICES. Your agenda isn't theirs, apparently.
No streaming music service pays a decent amount for streams. Some are better than others but all are bad
Then take your music off the services and try to survive on CD sales and gigs. Everyone who works anywhere thinks they're underpaid.
I'm OLD school. I only pay for music when I can physically hold it. Back in the day I used to download music on NAPSTER(beta). That was around the year 2001/2002.
Spotify today announced a price increase in the United States, Estonia, and Latvia, marking the company's third U.S. price increase in less than three years.
The company revealed the changes in a post published on its website earlier today, stating that Premium subscribers in the affected markets will receive an email over the coming month explaining how the new pricing will apply to their accounts. Spotify said that the revised prices will take effect on subscribers' next billing date, while new customers will see the updated pricing immediately when signing up on spotify.com/premium.
In the United States, Spotify is increasing the cost of every major Premium tier. The Individual Premium plan will rise from $11.99 to $12.99 per month. The Student plan will increase from $5.99 to $6.99 per month. Multi-user plans are seeing larger increases, with the Duo plan, which supports two accounts, moving from $16.99 to $18.99 per month, and the Family plan increasing from $19.99 to $21.99 per month. Spotify attributed the changes to what it described as periodic adjustments across its markets:
This latest increase is the third time Spotify has raised U.S. subscription prices since mid-2023. In July 2023, Spotify implemented its first U.S. price hike since launching in the country in 2011, increasing the Individual Premium plan from its long-standing $9.99 monthly price. A second increase followed in June 2024, bringing the Individual plan to $11.99 per month. The January 2026 change moves that price another dollar higher, continuing a pattern of more frequent adjustments after more than a decade of unchanged pricing.
Outside the United States, Spotify has also raised prices in recent years. The company increased subscription costs in multiple international markets in August 2025, and previously raised prices in regions including the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Article Link: Spotify Increasing Subscription Prices in the US Again
I also have YouTube premium and never once used YouTube music, I forgot it was even an option until you reminded me.
We listen to free Pandora over our company's music system (which I installed.) Few ads here and there. Ok with that. We are open 9-7 every day: 10+ hours of music per day. Everybody has their favorite lists and we all rush to change it when the ads run, or when it asks if we are still listening. Fun.
This is the reason I do not want my music library tied to a subscription. I buy all my tracks and will still have them when the subscription becomes too expensive. I use Apple Music, not Spotify, simply because I can explore the music and then buy the ones I like by clicking on the Store option, unlike Spotify which does not have the option to purchase tracks (and I know that a lot of people could not care less as it has become the 'thing' to not own music).
Anyway I can keep my music when the internet goes down or streaming company dies or the subscription becomes untenable.
Anyway I can keep my music when the internet goes down or streaming company dies or the subscription becomes untenable.