- Spotify has increased the price for single Premium subscriptions in South Africa this morning.
- A single subscription is now priced at R64.99 from R59.99 previously.
- Users will be given a month’s grace at the old price before they have to start paying the new one.
South African users of audio streaming platform Spotify received an unwelcome hello as soon as they opened its mobile app this morning, as the Swedish firm has hiked prices for Spotify Premium subscriptions locally.
According to the pop-up screen on the app, the price of Premium is changing from R59.99 per month to R64.99 per month. Users already subscribed will have to pay the new price one month after their next billing date, as Spotify gives a one-month grace period when increasing prices.
If you have made use of a free trial, such as the first three-month free trial, you will be charged the new price one month after your billing begins. This means that you will still pay R59.99 for one month after the trial ends, after which you will pay R64.99 per month for Premium.
If you don’t want to pay the new price, Spotify says it offers a range of subscription plans to users, alternatively, you can end your subscription at any time on the account page but then you will have to deal with the ad-supported free tier which is made by the app to be increasingly frustrating as you use it.
These latest subscription price increases have been a long time coming, as the platform hiked prices in 53 countries worldwide in July this year, of which South Africa was initially exempt.
At the time Spotify described how broad worldwide market conditions influenced the decision to up prices for Premium.
“The market landscape has continued to evolve since we launched. So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world. These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform,” it explained.
Spotify offers five different Premium plans in South Africa, the most expensive of which is Premium Family which allows up to six accounts to be connected to the same subscription. This goes for R99.99 a month.
The platform has not indicated if this price will also increase as hikes are yet to reflect on the Available Plans section of the app.
On top of the price increase happening today, Spotify has indicated that its new Jam feature is now available in South Africa. The feature is basically a collaborative playlist made for party environments where multiple users can queue up different songs via their mobile apps.
To get started on Jam, head to Settings and Privacy and look for Jam > Tap and Join. Here you can activate the feature which will use Bluetooth to send your recommendations.
[Image – Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash]
