First price rise since 2011.
In the US, the new prices are:
Premium Individual - $10.99 Premium Duo - $14.99 Premium Family - $16.99 Premium Student - $5.99
The following countries will see price rises:
Andorra, Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Croatia, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, San Marino, Thailand, Türkiye/Turkey, United States, Kosovo.
No, but people expect wages to increase along with the cost of living, at the very least, which they aren’t for most. So when all these optional services raise prices at the same time, it’s understandable that people are upset that they’re going to lose/drop some services while their paychecks are stretched thin everywhere else. It’s like mourning the loss of something that was already barely worth it.
It’s also annoying when prices go up and 1) there is little or no increase in quality or convenience to help it feel justified, and 2) other alternatives are still cheaper or better value, for now, and 3) there are free piracy alternatives that many folks previously left behind for convenience and because of affordability.
This is exactly it. It seems like every service is raising prices with no noticeable improvement to the service itself. Hell, this would be easier to swallow if Spotify was going to pay artists more. There doesn’t seem to be any benefit to anyone other than Spotify’s bottom line, which I assure you, is doing just fine.
Shrinkflation. Make a product or service smaller or worse and charge more for it. Been happening for years now across different industries, product types, and service types.
You do realize that providing their service also costs them money? Operational costs aren’t constant either and grow with inflation as everything else does and considering the last price increase this is a reasonable increase to cocer their increased costs.
Real wages are up dramatically over the past two years. Granted that’s the first time in around 25 years, but they are up and significantly so.
By why would you expect the cost increase to mean new features when it’s such a low amount that it’s not even covering the “losses” they’ve made from inflation?
And frankly, I don’t want new features because I’m happy with the service as is. It provides me access to my music, that’s all I need out of it.