With over 500 million users, Spotify is without a doubt one of the most popular music streaming apps around the world.
But users are furious, following the news that Spotify is hiking its prices in both the UK and the US.
Its premium, duo, and family plans have all increased by £1/month, meaning some users are now paying a whopping £17.99/month for their subscription.
While Spotify claims the price hike will allow it to ‘keep innovating’, many users have slammed the change as ‘greedy’.
Some are so furious they’re even cancelling their accounts, with one tweeting: ‘I’m going back to Apple Music.’
With over 500 million users, Spotify is without a doubt one of the most popular music streaming apps around the world. But users are furious, following the news that Spotify is hiking its prices in both the UK and the US
Some are so furious they’re even cancelling their accounts, with one tweeting: ‘I’m going back to Apple Music’
Spotify announced the changes on Monday in a blog post, and said it would be notifying customers about the price increase via email.
‘The market landscape has continued to evolve since we launched,’ Spotify explained.
‘So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world.
‘These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform.’
Spotify’s UK premium plan has risen from £9.99/month to £10.99 per month, while its duo subscription and family plans – which include six users – also increased by £1 each, now costing users £14.99 and £17.99, respectively.
The only plan that appears unaffected by the hike is the student subscription which has remained at £5.99 per month.
The rates in the US reflected a similar increase with the family plan now costing $17 per month instead of $16.
The duo plan shot from $13 to $15 and the student subscription rate remained unchanged.
Several users have taken to Twitter, with many calling Spotify ‘greedy’. Others have revealed that they’re cancelling their accounts following the price increase
Several users have taken to Twitter, with many calling Spotify ‘greedy’.
‘Do the Spotify price increases mean they’re going to pay artists more? Doubt it. More like greedy execs want more money in their pockets,’ one user wrote.
Another added: ‘spotify are just pure greedy putting the price of single account to £11.’
Meanwhile, others have revealed that they’re cancelling their accounts following the price increase.
‘After 14 years, I don’t love you enough to pay an additional $2/mo #ByeFelicia,’ one user tweeted.
And one vented: ‘I got premium a couple months ago. Just got an email about the price increase. It’s only $1 more, but their justification makes me want to cancel. I don’t care about innovation and features. I want artists to be paid.’
If you want to cancel your Premium plan, simply log into spotify.com/account.
Under Your plan, click CHANGE PLAN, then scroll to Cancel Spotify and click CANCEL PREMIUM.
‘Your Premium stays until your next billing date, then your account switches to free,’ Spotify explained.
‘You keep your playlists and saved music when your account is free. You can also still log in and play with ads.’
WHAT IS SPOTIFY?
Spotify is a music, video and podcast streaming service founded on April 23, 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Spotify allows users to create and customise their own playlists and browse content using parameters such genre, artist and album searches.
It compensates artists by paying them royalties based on the number of their streams proportional to the number of total songs streamed overall.
The company was founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and officially launched on October 7, 2008.
Spotify is a music, video and podcast streaming service founded on April 23, 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify allows users to create and customise their own playlists and browse content using parameters such genre, artist and album searches
It operates using a ‘freemium’ service model, meaning that its basic features are free with some restrictions and advertisements while additional services are available via paid subscription.
The service is available in most of North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Asia.
It’s available on macOS, Windows and Linux computers as well as on Android, iOS and Windows smartphones and tablet computers.
Spotify currently has approximately 159 million users, 71 million of whom use paid subscription services.
Its revenue for fiscal year 2017 is believed to be about $4.99 billion (£3.63bn).
