Spotify prospects acquired unhealthy information this week: the price of Spotify subscriptions within the U.S. goes up for the third time in beneath three years. The change instantly makes Spotify Premium one of the crucial costly music streaming providers available on the market, with the brand new particular person plan costing $2 extra per 30 days than comparable choices on Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music.
Particularly, Spotify Premium Particular person will price $12.99 per 30 days (up from $11.99), and Spotify Premium Scholar will price $6.99 per 30 days (up from $5.99). The corporate is elevating the price of Duo and Household plans by a fair larger margin. The 2-user Spotify Premium Duo tier will price $18.99 per 30 days (up from $16.99), whereas the Spotify Premium Household plan will price $21.99 per 30 days (up from $19.99).
Occasional updates to pricing throughout our markets replicate the worth that Spotify delivers, enabling us to proceed providing the very best expertise and profit artists.
Spotify
On the outdated worth of $11.99 per 30 days, Spotify’s Premium Particular person plan was already priced greater than the person subscriptions for Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music.
The outdated worth was the identical as Amazon Music Limitless for non-Prime members, however Amazon Prime subscribers are eligible for a less expensive $10.99 per 30 days price. Now, Spotify is costlier than each competitor listed above, and the hole is especially broad for multi-user plans.
Whereas Spotify notes that pricing updates assist it “profit artists,” the state of affairs is extra sophisticated than that. Spotify pays out a bigger share of its income to music rightsholders (which move on earnings to artists) than some rivals, like Apple Music. Nonetheless, because of Spotify’s pricing mannequin, together with a free tier, it finally ends up paying rightsholders much less on a per-stream foundation than Tidal and Apple Music.
If you happen to uploaded a music to each main streaming service and it earned a thousand streams, Tidal would pay out probably the most, with Apple Music, Amazon Music Limitless, Spotify, and YouTube Music following in that order.
The timing of the worth hike is not a great search for Spotify. It comes just some months after the corporate lastly delivered lossless, CD-quality streaming for Spotify Premium subscribers in September 2025. The transfer ended an embarrassing saga for Spotify, because it introduced the characteristic in February 2021 however took almost half a decade to launch it.
The characteristic was included free with Spotify Premium when it debuted, however just some months later, the worth of that subscription service goes up. Rumors of a Spotify worth hike began showing only one month after Spotify Lossless grew to become obtainable.
Different streaming providers, like Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music Limitless, supply lossless streaming in greater high quality than Spotify at decrease month-to-month costs.
That is to not say Spotify is not investing in upgrading its music streaming platform. It constantly provides options, however they might not be those music lovers need. Spotify added direct messaging to the app earlier than including assist for lossless audio. It has additionally leaned into podcasts and audiobooks whereas cramming synthetic intelligence instruments into the app.
Nonetheless, it is price noting that Spotify followers rightly desire the app’s algorithm, suggestions, and social options over the competitors, that are usually thought of superior.
Is it time to go away Spotify for an additional subscription service?
Spotify’s newest worth hike brings extra consideration to the truth that the music streaming service is definitely not a terrific worth in comparison with rivals. That’s, regardless of the platform having the most important lively person base of any music streaming service on the planet. For Android customers particularly, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium look extremely interesting following Spotify’s worth change.
The usual YouTube Music Premium Particular person plan prices $10.99 per 30 days or $109.99 yearly, though it is price noting that YouTube Music lacks lossless audio assist. The true worth choice is subscribing to YouTube Premium for $13.99 per 30 days — only a greenback extra month-to-month than the brand new Spotify Premium Particular person plan, which grants you all the advantages of YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, in addition to all of the hidden gem remixes that you just probably cannot discover on Spotify.
For lossless audio fanatics, I like each Apple Music and Tidal for simply $10.99 per 30 days over Spotify. These streaming providers ship higher-quality lossless audio than Spotify. In addition they every supply Dolby Atmos tracks, which Spotify doesn’t. Amazon Music Limitless additionally gives high-res lossless and Dolby Atmos assist, however its base worth earlier than the Prime low cost is greater than Apple Music and Tidal.
Is the Spotify worth hike sufficient to lastly push you to change to a special streaming service? I take advantage of Apple Music, even on Android and Home windows, and I really like the no-nonsense expertise. It is only a music app, prioritizing hi-res and immersive audio codecs and omitting pointless options like podcasts, audiobooks, and AI. Now, it does all that whereas costing two {dollars} much less per 30 days than Spotify.
