Finally, Spotify increases its prices

It is tough to get outraged about Spotify raising its prices — unless you think the €1 increase on its individual premium plan is not enough to pay the musicians on its platform fairly and the Swedish audio streamer should really be putting up its prices by more.

In part, you won’t hear too many people complaining about the rising cost of this plan, now €10.99 a month, because the product on offer is such a win: instant advert-free and unlimited access to a near-infinite catalogue of music. There are some podcasts that clutter up the user interface, too, of course, but thankfully they don’t spoil the joy too much.

If subscribers don’t want to pay for Spotify anymore, an “ad-supported” and more functionally limited version of the same catalogue is available for precisely €0 a month — the bargain to end all bargains.

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Among those who already subscribe, and 220 million people do, the €1 increase announced this week for 53 markets, including Ireland, should be easy to swallow.

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It is not as if Spotify has been at this every second month. While the price of its duo, family and student plans did go up here in 2021, the individual premium plan has been €9.99 since forever.

Adding €1 to the monthly cost of this plan (as well as the duo plan, which will increase to €14.99 a month) is a minor upward adjustment for customers. But the increase will make a difference — a small difference — to many outwardly successful artists who are in fact scraping by on the paltry royalties they receive from streaming via their record labels.

The more net revenue Spotify makes from subscriptions and adverts, the more money artists on the platform will earn. That makes this price increase overdue and, if anything, a little too modest.