If you’re subscribed to Spotify, start checking your inbox. The music streaming service is sending emails to customers letting them know about yet another price hike coming next month.
To Spotify’s credit, the price hike is pretty minor. But starting on whatever your February billing date is, individual premium plans will jump from $11.99/month to $12.99/month, while student plans will go from $5.99/month to $6.99/month.
More extensive plans will see a slightly more costly jump. The Duo plan, which gives premium access to two people at the same address, is going from $16.99/month to $18.99/month. The Family plan, which gives premium access to up to six people at the same address, will also see a $2 increase, now costing $21.99/month rather than $19.99/month.
The price hikes are set to affect the U.S., Estonia, and Latvia, according to Spotify’s announcement. The company’s rationale for all this? According to the post, “occasional updates to pricing across our markets reflect the value that Spotify delivers.”
Truthfully, $1 to $2 does seem like a pretty minor change, but the update follows another U.S. price hike in 2024, where Individual plans went up by $1, Duo plans went up by $2, and Family plans went up by $3. And that came after a price hike in 2023, where the Individual, Student, and Family plans went up by $1, while the Duo plan went up by $2. Certain subscribers outside of the U.S. also saw their own price increases in 2025. I can’t help but feel like a frog in a slowly boiling pot.
What do you think so far?
The continual barrage of price hikes is a bit of a disappointment for subscribers who had gotten used to a steady price for Spotify since its U.S. launch in 2011, as the service went for 12 years before its first price change.
If all these price hikes are starting to get to you, you might be able to get around them. If you can find one at a store near you, you can pay upfront for a discounted annual subscription using a Spotify gift card, although it won’t apply to Spotify’s Family or Student plans. Unfortunately, Spotify does not have an annual subscription plan available on its website.
