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Amazon Music and Spotify are the next big names in the music streaming industry to increase subscription prices after Google and Apple turned to a similar strategy last year.
Amazon has already confirmed the price hikes in the United States and the United Kingdom, with Spotify expected to come up with an announcement in the coming weeks.
The adoption of music streaming services has skyrocketed in the last few years. While Spotify has long been the preferred choice for most users, the boom recorded by this type of service caught the attention of tech giants like Google and Apple, both eventually investing big into making their products more competitive.
The battle for the best music streaming service is fierce right now, and most companies are trying to secure exclusive content that would only be available to their subscribers.
The competition is also expanding in the pricing space, and despite efforts to offer music streaming at lower rates than rivals, price hikes seem to be the only option these days.
Both Google and Apple have already unveiled price increases for YouTube Music and Apple Music subscriptions, and now Amazon and Spotify are ready to follow in their footsteps with a similar unfortunate strategy.
The first to make subscriptions more expensive is Amazon. Starting in February, a standard Amazon Music Unlimited subscription will cost $10.99 (up from $9.99), while students will have to pay $5.99 (up from $4.99). In the United Kingdom, the subscription prices will increase by 1 British pound, so the standard plan will cost 10.99 pounds, whereas a student subscription will be available for 5.99 pounds.
The change will come into effect on February 21, and of course, it will only concern the new subscriptions that are purchased after this date.
Spotify is also preparing a similar move, but for the time being, no decision on this front has been made. CEO Daniel Ek says the company is indeed considering a price hike in the United States, with further details very likely to be announced sooner rather than later.
While the rising subscription prices can’t be good news for users in these countries, only time will tell if the subscriber base will eventually be affected. Given all companies are increasing the prices, switching to a competing product doesn’t make much sense anyway, so customers who don’t want to pay more for music streaming have no other option than to give up on their plans and turn to offline media players.
There are plenty of solutions that offer such capabilities, including BlackPlayer EX, Musicolet, AIMP, and MediaMonkey, all of which are fitted with an impressive feature package on mobile devices. The new price hikes are, therefore, likely to let users explore this side of the market, especially as driving and listening to music is something that already feels natural.
The adoption of music streaming services has skyrocketed in the last few years. While Spotify has long been the preferred choice for most users, the boom recorded by this type of service caught the attention of tech giants like Google and Apple, both eventually investing big into making their products more competitive.
The battle for the best music streaming service is fierce right now, and most companies are trying to secure exclusive content that would only be available to their subscribers.
The competition is also expanding in the pricing space, and despite efforts to offer music streaming at lower rates than rivals, price hikes seem to be the only option these days.
Both Google and Apple have already unveiled price increases for YouTube Music and Apple Music subscriptions, and now Amazon and Spotify are ready to follow in their footsteps with a similar unfortunate strategy.
The first to make subscriptions more expensive is Amazon. Starting in February, a standard Amazon Music Unlimited subscription will cost $10.99 (up from $9.99), while students will have to pay $5.99 (up from $4.99). In the United Kingdom, the subscription prices will increase by 1 British pound, so the standard plan will cost 10.99 pounds, whereas a student subscription will be available for 5.99 pounds.
The change will come into effect on February 21, and of course, it will only concern the new subscriptions that are purchased after this date.
Spotify is also preparing a similar move, but for the time being, no decision on this front has been made. CEO Daniel Ek says the company is indeed considering a price hike in the United States, with further details very likely to be announced sooner rather than later.
While the rising subscription prices can’t be good news for users in these countries, only time will tell if the subscriber base will eventually be affected. Given all companies are increasing the prices, switching to a competing product doesn’t make much sense anyway, so customers who don’t want to pay more for music streaming have no other option than to give up on their plans and turn to offline media players.
There are plenty of solutions that offer such capabilities, including BlackPlayer EX, Musicolet, AIMP, and MediaMonkey, all of which are fitted with an impressive feature package on mobile devices. The new price hikes are, therefore, likely to let users explore this side of the market, especially as driving and listening to music is something that already feels natural.
Google News