If you’re on a Spotify Family plan, get ready to pay a little more.
In the US, the music-streaming service is raising the price of the family plan from $14.99 to $15.99 on Friday, April 30. (A family plan can serve six users.) Prices for its other plans, including the base $9.99-per-month Premium plan, will remain the same in the states.
That's not the case overseas, where certain markets will also see a price hike on April 30. For example, in the UK, the Student plan is going from £4.99 to £5.99 per month, while the Duo plan increases from £12.99 to £13.99.
However, the Family Plan in the UK gets a bigger hike, going from £14.99 to £16.99, which converts into $23.60. Naturally, some users are peeved after the company sent out emails on Monday notifying them about the higher fee. However, Spotify began rolling out the family plan in other markets in October, and later noted that its users did not abandon Spotify as a result.
The company didn’t really explain why the costs are going up. In a statement, Spotify merely said: “we occasionally update our prices to reflect local macroeconomic factors and meet market demands while offering an unparalleled service.”
The “macroeconomic factors” may allude to competitors paying to secure more record labels and artists. Earlier this month, Apple disclosed that it pays a penny per stream to music rights holders, or about double compared to Spotify, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As for Spotify, the company has been losing money and posting operating income losses over the last five financial quarters. But its subscriber base continues to grow. In Q4, Spotify reached 155 million paid subscribers, up from 144 million in the previous quarter.
“With more than 70 million tracks and 2.2 million podcasts, Spotify continues to innovate and invest in providing our listeners with greater value than ever before, including the best audio content and user experience,” the company added.