Spotify to hike prices

From April 30th Spotify Premium plans to stream music without adverts will cost up to 20% more.

Three of the paid Spotify Premium plans – Family, Duo and Student – are going up in price. The new charges could amount to an extra £24 a year. Though it’s looking unlikely it’ll happen to Premium Individual right now, this could increase in the future.

Here’s how much you can expect to pay, ways to save money and alternatives.

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New Spotify prices

In an email to customers on 26th April, Spotify announced the individual price increases. It’s not currently listed on the Spotify website but I’ve found details of changes to other plans, as listed below.

An increase for Spotify Premium Individual is still to be confirmed and now looks like it won’t be happening (yet).

PLAN	CURRENT PRICE	NEW PRICE	% increase
Premium	£9.99	TBC	0%
Duo	£12.99	£13.99	7.7%
Family	£14.99	£16.99	13.3%
Student	£4.99	£5.99	20.1%

One month price freeze

The email sent by Spotify promised existing subscribers would get one more month at the current prices. The new charges will therefore come in to play from June.

I’m assuming new subscribers will pay the new prices from 30th April 2021.

Duo and Family plan increases lower than rumoured

Rumours of higher prices have been around for the last month, with it reported that Spotify was looking at £10.99 for Premium Individual, £14.99 for Duo and £19.99 for Family.

Both Duo and Family have not increased by as much as feared, though we’re still waiting for confirmation on Individual.

Yet another price increase

Though this is the first music streaming site to up prices, Netflix, NOW and Disney+ all hiked prices recently.

If you subscribe to Spotify Family, Netflix Standard and Disney+, you’ll be paying an extra £5 every month, or £60 over the year.

Can you beat the price hike?

Unlike some streaming services, there’s no annual plan to lock in prices. However, there are multi-month gift cards available for the individual Spotify Premium.

Though these are billed as “3 months” or “a year”, they also have a value based on the £9.99 monthly fee. Looking at the terms and conditions of the gift cards there’s nothing to say whether it’s the value that counts, or the length of time.

I’d hedge my bets that it’s the length of time, particularly since you can’t use these cards against other Spotify Premium plans.

If you are happy to commit to one year, you’ll save a little more, with a £20 discount (effectively 12 months for the price of 10).

Of course, we’re still waiting for confirmation of whether this tier of Spotify will go up in price or stay the same.

Shared accounts can still be better value

Despite the prices going up on all the different options, the Duo and Family plans are still cheaper than solo accounts – if you live in the same household as the person you are sharing with.

Duo is, as the name suggests, for two people. This new price works out as £6.99 per person (up from £6.49).

Family is for up to six different accounts. At £16.99, that’s £5.66 each if there are three of you, down to £2.83 for six.

You get your own person Spotify account, so you don’t get anyone messing with your algorithm. However they are all paid for by the lead account which means you’ll need to work out how or if you split the bill.

You can still listen for free

If you are happy with adverts you can use listen to Spotify Free. However you won’t be able to download music to listen to offline or use with a smart speaker.

Alternatives to Spotify

If you aren’t keen on paying more, then you could use this as an opportunity to try a different streaming service.

I’ve listed the best offers on my dedicated music streaming deals page, but broadly you can currently get:

• 5 months free trial at Apple Music
• 6 months free trial at Tidal
• 3 months free trial at Deezer
• 3 months free trial at Amazon Music Unlimited