Get ready to pay more for Spotify

Read original article

That friend who likes to sound intellectual by summarizing podcasts will get charged more: Spotify said yesterday it’s raising subscription prices for the second time in under a year.

Under the new pricing, the soundtrack of your daily life will cost $11.99 per month for an individual premium plan (up from $10.99), $19.99/month for a family plan (up from $16.99), or $16.99/month for a two-person Duo plan (up from $14.99). The change will take effect in July.

The price hike is part of the company’s effort to become consistently profitable and fund its push into audiobooks. Investors turned on their pump-up playlists upon hearing the news, with Spotify’s stock gaining 5.7% yesterday.

Sound byte supplier supreme

The audio streaming giant is still growing, having gained 4 million paying subscribers from 2022 to 2023 and 30 million monthly active users. And it has an ultra-loyal customer base: Its 2% monthly churn rate is lower than that of competitors Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited, as well as most video streaming services, per Antenna data seen by Bloomberg.

Spotify can get away with charging more…without many people ditching the service, Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw argues, because its status as a repository of personal playlists for every mood keeps customers hooked.