Tidal has officially joined Apple Music, Deezer, and Amazon Music, raising the price of its US single subscription to $10.99 per month. Meanwhile, Spotify is reportedly preparing to launch a pricier premium tier of its own.
Block’s Tidal emailed Digital Music News today about its price increase, some five months after partnering with Universal Music Group (UMG) “to explore an innovative new economic model for music streaming.” According to the platform, the HiFi plan, which previously cost $9.99 per month by default, is set to get a $1 increase on August 1st. (Also, Reddit users are less enthusiastic communicates that the increases reach many other markets as well.)
Amazon Music has been charging $10.99 per month ($8.99 for Prime members) for individual Unlimited plans in the US since the end of February this year. Previously, Access Industries’ Deezer (Euronext: DEEZR), which is targeting explosive growth through 2025 and also working with UMG on streaming reform, raised its single tier to $10.99 in the second half of 2022 — as did Apple Music.
Despite the price hikes and Tidal’s intention, outlined above, to push individual plans to the $10.99-per-month mark in the US, today’s leading music-streaming platform Spotify has yet to make the jump.
However, there are strong indications that the Stockholm-based audio entertainment giant, which has been testing price increases in select markets for some time, is poised to reshape its domestic prices. In April, CEO Daniel Ek made it clear that he “wants and hopes” to adjust the cost of subscriptions in the US sometime in 2023.
However, the 40-year-old further explained that the exact timing of this increase depends, among other things, on the label negotiations. More recently, reports earlier this month shed light on the service’s plans to introduce a new tier known internally as Supremium.
According to those reports – Spotify hasn’t publicly addressed the rumored offer – Supremium would include (along with an increased price) access to the long-awaited Spotify HiFi, as well as a limited number of free audiobooks per month. Executives are reportedly considering rolling out the package to markets outside of the United States first.
Listeners will likely be quick to turn to social media when Supremium becomes available, and it’s also possible that Spotify itself will elaborate on the plan as part of its Q2 2023 earnings announcement. After posting double-digit year-over-year subscriber growth and a sustained operating loss in the first quarter of this year, the company is expected to release its second-quarter financial results on July 25.
Earlier today, Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) stock broke another 52-week high, this time approaching $162 per share. And when trading ended this afternoon, SPOT was worth $160.55.