Spotify Raising Prices in Multiple Countries

[Jensend]

They did when the app launched for a while.

And it's cheaper through the Spotify website now than it was through the in-App purchase 10 years ago, not even taking inflation into account.

It's very simple. their argument was that Spotify was unable to compete by showing the true prices and therefore Apple was gaining traction based on the cheaper prices.

I think the argument was more about market share. Not being able to link to the sign up page hurts their market share. Having to charge 30% more through the app hurts their market share.

Now that they have shown the true prices, it didn't seem to move the needle at all the point where Spotify still needs to raise prices.

Inflation. Subscribing through the Spotify website is cheaper than 10 years ago if you account for inflation.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I've been told by numerous posters on here, repeatedly over the past year, that the DMA would lower prices for consumers by increasing competition. If it’s not going to lower costs, what’s the point of outlawing closed ecosystems? Government meddling in the private sector just because they can? Because EU regulators are Ideologically opposed to closed ecosystems? They don’t understand that many consumers prefer Apple’s model? They have no understanding of the safety, security, and user benefits a closed ecosystem brings? They haven’t learned their lesson from Crowdstrike? All of the above?

Thems lying.

 

[ZipZilla]

Why would I pay monthly for music that I will never own?

It's like any subscription. You pay for access to everything. People paid for cable TV for 50 years and didn't own anything they watched, etc.

 

[Jensend]

Because it's not misinformation. You accusing me of spreading misinformation is misinformation itself.

You claimed Spotify is "getting 30% back". They are not, because they never paid 30% of their normal subscription price. For a while, they paid between 12% and 30% of a subscription price that was 30% higher. They are not charging that inflated subscription price now, so they aren't getting anything back.

Their normal subscription price has increased in the past 10 years, but not above inflation rates.

 

[cjsuk]

I started buying CDs / digital downloads again about a year ago. They are pretty cheap if you know where to look. In 3 years of spending the same as Apple Music or Spotify I break even, am entirely immune to price gouging, service availability, DRM and licensing issues. On top of that I've managed to get stuff that isn't on either service.

 

[justanotherdave]

Not sure who you were listening to. Literally doesn't mention lower pricing anywhere

About the Digital Markets Act

The DMA is one of the first regulatory tools to comprehensively regulate the gatekeeper power of the largest digital companies. The DMA complements, but does not change EU competition rules, which continue to apply fully.

digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu

Margrethe Vestager has stated multiple times in interviews that the DMA was going to lower prices.

Then there’s this little nugget from their website. Look at that, a direct mention of fairer prices.

Are you seriously going to claim that the DMA wasn’t supposed to be good for consumers by lowering prices? What exactly do you think the intent of anti-steering is? It’s so developers can direct consumers to pay through their own system and bypass Apple/Google fees. Which does what exactly? Lowers prices. Except it didn’t. Just like Apple & Google dropping fees for small devs to 15% didn’t result in lower prices.

 

[GrassShark]

Europe huh? You mean getting that extra 30% back from not going through the App Store IAP wasn't enough?

Surprise! Love to see people defend that.

Just because Spotify is behaving badly doesn't mean Apple is/was entitled to that 30%. Both companies can be in the wrong simultaneously.

 

[surferfb]

Thems lying.

Two examples from my friendly regular sparring partner @AppliedMicro in two minutes of searching. Emphasis below is mine.

Post 1:

Competitive markets don't go 15 years and multiply many time in size without transaction costs for large sellers decreasing. And decreasing transactions costs regularly lead to lower consumer prices. That is, compared to no decrease in transaction costs. The average selling price of apps may still increase due to inflation or higher utility/value provided, of course. But everthing else the same, lower transaction costs will lead to lower prices in competitive markets - compared to a situation where transaction costs are higher, such as due to an intermediary being able to set them unilaterally by operating a monopoly.

Anyone denying that is out of touch with basic economic principles of competitive markets.

Post 2

They aren‘t billion or dollar companies for no reason.
They’re making tons of revenue from consumers - including in the EU.
If they can lower prices by selling without Apple‘s commission, it’s a win for consumers.

 

[AppliedMicro]

They won't increase them as much as they'd have to otherwise

 

[wbeasley]

I was told the DMA was going to lower prices for consumers because Spotify wouldn't be required to pay for use of Apple's property. As you can imagine, I am shocked, absolutely shocked, that it turns out that the EU and its defenders had no idea what they were talking about.

yes, colour me surprised too.

i mean the EU did everything they could to assist Spotify.
Seems awfully quiet in the posts here from the regular supporters who complained about Apple being greedy...

Perhaps, just perhaps, it wasnt Apple that was greedy...

Apple Music with included hi res music is now an even better option.
Perhaps Apple should leverage this with some PR and RAISE their royalty payment to the highest of any streaming service and put the boot in

 

[applefan8254]

Can we please get ability to control/adjust playback speed of music in Spotify? Thank you

 

[germanbeer007]

And it's cheaper through the Spotify website now than it was through the in-App purchase 10 years ago, not even taking inflation into account.

Not sure what your point is. You said they weren't offering IAP. They did before EU rules.

I think the argument was more about market share. Not being able to link to the sign up page hurts their market share. Having to charge 30% more through the app hurts their market share.

"If we pay this [Apple] tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn't something we can do"

Inflation. Subscribing through the Spotify website is cheaper than 10 years ago if you account for inflation.

Latest earnings show revenue is 0% flat QoQ despite the Spotify app being approved in May 2025 (Q2) to allow pricing to be shown in app. It had zero effect. What Spotify was arguing is pretty much rendered invalid from this past earnings report.

 

[jlc1978]

Spotify:
Dear EU, thank you for excluding us from Gatekeeper designation! To show our appreciation, we’re raising prices… the same thing that those who controls markets tend to do. Please continue to look the other way.

Yea. I said that the battle was never about the consumer but who gets what cut of the pie. I expect Apple will find ways to get its 30% from developers making millions off the app store but only wanting to pay Apple 99Euros for the privilege.

 

[germanbeer007]

You claimed Spotify is "getting 30% back".

I don't mean Apple is refunding 30% to them, no. That's not what I meant.

They charged the 30% inflated price for a while and stopped offering IAP after that.

All prices shown via IAP is at a 30% disadvantage (whether Spotify gives up 30% of the pie or show the inflated 30% price to consumers so that Spotify doesn't lose money). They've reclaimed their 30% pricing power by being able to display the actual price by the IAP rules being gone.

 

[Jensend]

Not sure what your point is. You said they weren't offering IAP. They did before EU rules.

I clarified in the same post that they were offering IAP 10 years ago. In the first sentence I meant that they weren't offering IAP immediately before the EU rules. They stopped offering the IAP before the EU rules were implemented.

"If we pay this [Apple] tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn't something we can do"

That is accurate. When they were paying the Apple tax, it forced them to raise the price of the premium membership when purchased through IAP. The Premium subscription through the App store was higher than the cost of Apple Music.

Latest earnings show revenue is 0% flat QoQ despite the Spotify app being approved in May 2025 (Q2) to allow pricing to be shown in app. It had zero effect. What Spotify was arguing is pretty much rendered invalid from this past earnings report.

I'm not sure that one data point is enough to make their argument invalid.

 

[Ad47uk]

Why would I pay monthly for music that I will never own?

Do you pay for video streaming services?

It is not a problem of paying for music I don't own, it is the price Spotify is £12 a month in the U.K, Amazon Music is £10.99, Apple Music is £10.99 a month as well. I pay less for ITVX, which is a video streaming service in the U.K

i have prime music, so can play different types of music, but not a specific group/artist or song. To be honest, I do prefer a phsycal copy of my music

 

[surferfb]

They won't increase them as much as they'd have to otherwise

Man this must be tough for the EU. DMA forces Apple open, corruptly redistributing value Apple worked hard to create to Spotify (while also corruptly excluding Spotify as a gatekeeper), claiming it will lead to increased competition that lowers prices for customers, and then Spotify immediately raised prices on EU customers.

I appreciate Spotify so quickly confirming that all the consumer-focused arguments for the DMA were bunk. I mean, they immediately get the ability to use Apple’s customer base for free, without compensating Apple, after years of clamoring to open up Apple because it was raising prices for consumers, and immediately raise prices?

Either the EU is worse at their jobs than I thought (and as you know, I think they’re really bad at their jobs), they’re willing to lie to further their ideological zealotry against closed ecosystems, or they’re in on the grift.

 

[Slix]

All the people that said me buying music for the last 10 years was silly are looking real cool now, I bet.

I often spend less than $10 a month on music I own, but I never get it taken away since it's locally stored.

 

[Ad47uk]

Why do you want to own digital music?

People buy CDs, they are digital. i have paid out for a couple of songs in mp3, but that is it.

 

[Jensend]

I don't mean Apple is refunding 30% to them, no. That's not what I meant.

That's not what I thought you meant. I thought you meant that Apple would not be skimming 30% off the top from now on, implying they had been charging that before now. I mean, they won't be, but they haven't for the past 10 years either, except for legacy customers that signed up 10 years ago and never canceled their subscriptions (though that was reduced to 15% after a year). And even those were canceled two years ago.

They charged the 30% inflated price for a while and stopped offering IAP after that.

All prices shown via IAP is at a 30% disadvantage (whether Spotify gives up 30% of the pie or show the inflated 30% price to consumers so that Spotify doesn't lose money). They've reclaimed their 30% pricing power by being able to display the actual price by the IAP rules being gone.

It's been nearly 10 years since they offered the IAP option. So the only change now is that they can advertise the subscription price within the app and link to their site where consumers can sign up. The 30% thing is irrelevant.

 

[Ad47uk]

A someone who used to buy 2-3 CDs a month, I subscribe to Apple Music because I get value out of it and save on not buying albums. It's that simple, same with any other service.

I used top do that a few years ago and with vinyl, but these daysl mto be hoenst over the last 10 years or so, there have been very few artists/groups that I would want a CD of.
Music these days for the most part is not my taste, I prefer the older stuff.

 

[JohnnyApple$eed]

If you want artists to get higher payout per stream, subscribe to a music service and don't stream any songs. That will make the average payout per stream go up a slight bit.

I think you misread as the list was a reply to show johannnn the original post that Spotify is indeed not the lowest payout. YouTube Music is.

 

[funandblindness]

Spotify today said that it is raising prices for Premium subscriptions in multiple countries across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Spotify is sending out emails to customers who will see their subscription prices go up.

A sample email suggests that prices in an unnamed European country are increasing by a euro, from €10.99 to €11.99. Price hikes will vary by location, and Spotify users can see the new pricing for their country by visiting the Spotify website.

Prices are not going up in all markets at this time including the United States. In the U.S., a Premium individual subscription continues to be priced at $11.99 per month.

Spotify says prices are increasing so that it can "continue to innovate" on product offerings and features and "bring users the best experience."

Article Link: Spotify Raising Prices in Multiple Countries

By far the most garbage service out there. If you are using it, now is the perfect time to ditch that crap. I'm looking at you music venues using it to promote shows. #spotifysucks

How Spotify's algorithm is destroying the music industry

Music algorithms are boxing people into a niche, ruining the way artists write songs, and priming an environment for AI-generated slop.

www.soundguys.com

 

[funandblindness]

Streaming music royalties are pocket change for even the most destitute artists, from Spotify, Apple, or otherwise.

Still no reason to be on spotify.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Still no reason to be on spotify.

Sure there is; I like the app, the social aspect, the layout and the recommendations. I can't stand Apple Music, despite having tried it multiple times, for multiple months.

That and Apple Music doesn't work on my Garmin. Spotify does.