Spotify is officially raising its Premium subscription rates in the US come July, following reports of the move in April. The platform is increasing its Individual plan from $11 to $12 monthly and its Duo plan from $15 to $17 monthly — the same jump as last year’s $1 and $2 price hikes, respectively. However, its Family plan is going up by a whopping $3, increasing from $17 to $20 monthly. The only subscribers getting a break are students, who will continue to pay $6 monthly.
Spotify announced the price hikes less than a year after its previous one last July. Before that, Spotify hadn’t raised its fees since launching a decade and a half ago. I guess it was too optimistic to hope the next increase would also take that long, especially with Spotify’s continued focus (and money dump) on audiobooks.
Premium subscribers should receive an email from Spotify in the next month detailing the price hike and providing a link to cancel their plan if they would prefer to do so. Users currently on a trial period for Spotify will get one month at $11 after it ends before being moved up to a $12 monthly fee.
Seriously? Like, finding and buying those two CDs used would be cheaper than maintaining a Spotify subscription.
No kidding. Consider the possibility that this was the first avenue I pursued and was nevertheless stymied in my efforts.
One of the bands only sells vinyl outside of Spotify (I have the record on Vinyl, but the process of digitizing it is similar to recording straight from Spotify but harder), and the other band is based in Mexico and doesn’t have a digital marketplace. In both cases I’ve literally emailed the bands offering to overpay for raw digital files but haven’t heard back yet. I am seriously considering flying to Guadalajara to catch them live and pick up a CD there. They don’t really tour in the US north of Texas.
But I’ll keep my eye out for CDs.
That does seem like a pickle. There is a band that is (well, WAS) LOCAL to me and I still couldn’t get digital files. I was bitching about on reddit a while back, and I got a DM from someone who sent me an email with the files. They’re in 320mp3, but better than what I had before.
Good luck with that, and have fun in Guadalajara if you go!
Well you just hooked me up with the album I’d all but given up on, so thank you tremendously. Since I at least have the other album on Vinyl, I think I am going to pull the trigger and cancel my Spotify now. Now I don’t exactly need to go to Guadalajara, though I hope to see Porter live one day.
Thanks again for your help!
I hope you go to the show anyway.
I regret not going to shows of artists that just can’t be seen anymore
I know I will eventually. I also just really want to support them, and will buy a copy of all of their albums whenever I am able to. I don’t even speak spanish but their music just lights me up.