A YouTube Music price increase has officially been implemented in the U.S. Photo Credit: Rubaitul Azad
YouTube Music has officially joined Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, and Amazon Music – but not Spotify – in raising its subscription price to $10.99 per month in the United States.
The Google subsidiary just recently implemented the YouTube Music price increase (in addition to upping the stateside cost of YouTube Premium to $13.99 per month), about one month after Tidal announced a raise of its own. But unlike Block-owned Tidal, which is expected to roll out the new pricing structure in August, YouTube has already gone ahead and retooled its paid packages.
To be sure, YouTube Music’s aforementioned $10.99-per-month price is currently live in the U.S., as is YouTube Premium’s $13.99-per-month tier. (Previously priced at $11.99 per month, YouTube Premium offers customers ad-free and offline access to both YouTube Music and YouTube proper.)
“We’re updating the price for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers in the US to continue delivering great service and features,” a YouTube spokesperson told DMN. “We believe this new price reflects the value of YouTube Premium which allows subscribers to enjoy ad-free YouTube with background and offline play and uninterrupted access to over 100M songs with the YouTube Music app.”
This latest streaming-service price bump has gone live as more than a few investors and observers are speculating as to when Spotify will abandon the longstanding $9.99-per-month price point for individual subscriptions in the States.
While Spotify has for some time been experimenting with higher prices in select regions and for certain plans, CEO Daniel Ek towards April’s end signaled that his company was “ready to raise prices” in different markets yet. The precise timing of the move, however, “really comes down to those negotiations” with the major labels, the 40-year-old elaborated.
More recently, reports one month back indicated that Spotify was preparing to debut a “Supremium” package, complete with HiFi, and bolster its existing premium offering with monthly audiobook credits.
Though the latter would presumably bring with it the long-expected $10.99 price in the U.S., Spotify is reportedly teeing up the enhanced premium option for an international release ahead of a domestic launch this October.
That said, the Stockholm-headquartered platform itself hasn’t set the pricing framework in stone – or commented publicly on the matter. But logic suggests that the subject will come up during Spotify’s Q2 2023 earnings call, which is scheduled to take place next Tuesday, July 25th.
