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Spotify Increases Prices in Canada by Up to 24%
Spotify has increased its prices in Canada across the board, following a similar move made in the U.S. this past June.
According to iPhone in Canada readers, emails sent out by Spotify notified customers of the price increase, which affects all Premium plans.
Spotify’s email we obtained says it is increasing the price of Premium Individual “so that we can continue to innovate on our product offerings and features.” The company says if you can always downgrade your plan or cancel if you don’t agree with the new price change.
Here are the updated Spotify Premium monthly prices in Canada as of today:
- Individual: $12.69 (was $10.99)
- Student: $6.39 (was $5.99)
- Duo: $17.89 (was $14.99)
- Family: $20.99 (was $16.99)
Individual plans went up 15%, the student plan is up 5%, while duo is up 19% and family gets the biggest hike of 24%.
Back in July 2023, Spotify increased its price of Premium in Canada.
Why did Spotify increase its prices? Back in February, Spotify said Canada’s new Online Streaming Act would force it to increase prices in the country. The regulation from the CRTC says foreign online streaming services will need to give 5% of their Canadian revenues to support the Canadian film, TV and music. Welcome to Canada, everybody.
We’ve reached out to Spotify for comment and will update this story accordingly.
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I'm currently a Spotify Premium Family plan member, and am being offered a "Basic Family" plan for $17.99. My current plan price is so far unchanged, but I guess I have one more month before I see the new pricing.
Love that I'm paying tax on tax on tax. Thanks, CRTC for once again proving just how incompitent you are. Might be time to cancel and make the switch until that service too is inevitably impacted. The goal of these fools is to make sure we as sheep use nothing but CBC for our listening and viewing pleasure so they can send them even more of our tax dollars.
The irony is that isn’t the GST supposed to have replaced this type of taxation? Or at least a similar type of double taxation scheme. (Hard to compare because they didn’t have streaming back then.
No – that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the HST.
Double check what it was that the GST replaced though.
The MST on all goods manufactured in Canada. It wouldn't apply here. Why shouldn't Canadian artists be protected. Spotify is notorious for ripping off content creators. Spotify is the bad guy in this one.
You’re not paying tax on tax. You are paying what Spotify charges + HST. The CRTC is billing Spotify 5%, Spotify is raising the rate they charge well beyond that. The funds which the CRTC collects largely goes to support Canadian arts.
5% tax vs 25% hike. they love to use a common enemy.
5% not 24% The company is gouging. Spotify is who you should be mad at not Canada protecting its artists.
This might be the push to switch to YouTube Premium or Apple One for me.
I don't want to give Google money, but paying $2 a month to essentially remove ads from youtube might be worth it. Instead of having stagnent audio quality with increasing prices every 6 months, it feels like. Apple music is also tempting.
Canadians wonder why various services and products don't come to our country. This is why, right here. This is why we can't have nice things. Government needs to stop telling us what to consume.
Luckily there are other music streaming options… though the corporate culture in Canada is generally upward price pressure in a competition for highest ARPU rather than downward price pressure for a competitive price landscape.
Certainly if the ARPU is being artificially lowered due to a government action akin to the streaming version of tariffs… you’d imagine that all streaming services will go up in price for Canadians.
Then there’s the currency considerations.
Non-partisan questions nobody ask: why CRTC requires 5% to foreign online streaming and Spotify increase their service by 24% not 5%? Where did they learn to do math?
I used to be a Spotify subscriber, but discovered that UTube Premium offers so much more for.roughly the same price.
I was Spotify Premium subscriber for about a decade but this has finally made me cancel it after all these years. Spotify has a major disadvantage as it's a standalone product although I think they are the best at streaming music but they also compete at bundled packages such us Apple One and Amazon Music. I kept paying for it because I was just so used to it, although I always knew this was not a great deal for me having access to both Apple Music and Amazon music as well. This morning Spotify finally made me quit as I feel stupid paying even more to have access to three separate premium music streaming services while only using one. Apple Music it is for me (I'm yet to even try Amazon Music, I just know I have access to it with Prime membership lol).
I like Spotify and have the Family plan, but a 24% increase is a slap in the face and tone deaf on the part of Spotify. I have a Prime membership so it looks like I'm moving to that.
who the hell raises their prices 25%?? can't stand for that. will see if I have the 🎱🎱 to switch.
Tidal