Spotify has introduced a new subscription plan, Basic, priced at $10.99 per month, offering a $1 discount for users who don’t need audiobook access. Take that, inflation!
Check this out, this single-user plan provides ad-free access to millions of songs and podcast episodes but excludes the audiobook feature available in the regular Premium Individual plan, which costs $11.99 per month.
Spotify explained this one who dollar drop in price stating, “Enjoy the music streaming benefits of your Premium plan without the monthly audiobook listening time,” when announcing the Basic tier. In contrast, the higher-priced premium plans include 15 hours of audiobook listening time monthly from a catalog of over 250,000 titles.
Get this, the basic plan’s launch follows recent price increases for most of Spotify’s existing plans. The Individual plan rose by $1 to $11.99 per month, the Family plan went up by $3 to $19.99 per month, and the Premium Duo plan increased by $2 to $16.99 per month.
Oh but wait, additionally, Spotify offers an audiobooks-only plan for $9.99 per month, providing 15 hours of audiobook listening time.
The new Audiobooks Access tier, introduced on March 1, allows Spotify to pay lower music-licensing rates for bundled plans. This follows a 2022 settlement between the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and streaming services, which includes a carveout for bundles like Amazon Prime and Apple Music + Apple News.
Don’t get too excited because last week, the NMPA filed a complaint with the FTC against Spotify, arguing that these music-and-audiobook bundles will reduce mechanical royalty payments to songwriters and artists by $150 million annually. Spotify acknowledges that the bundles allow for lower royalty rates but maintains that overall earnings for creators will continue to rise.
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