Just days after reports emerged that Spotify is aiming to increase the price of its family plan in its home market of Scandinavia, the streaming giant announced an upgrade to the plan — with no price increase in the U.S. and U.K., where it remains at $14.99 and £15, respectively.
A rep for the company did not immediately respond to Variety’s questions about whether other markets, such as Scandinavia, will see a price increase for the plan.
The upgrade is currently available in Ireland and will roll out in all markets that offer the Premium Family plan at an unspecified date in this fall.
While there is no mention of price in the U.S. blog post announcing the plan, a rep for the company confirmed that the price will remain the same. The plan will offer access to “Family Mix” playlists and the ability to manage all of the family plan members in a single place, including parental controls on explicit content; the plan still allows for up to six individual Premium accounts per plan.
In Scandinavia, Spotify is looking to raise the price of its family plan by about 13%, sources told Bloomberg last week, stressing that the effort is a test and the company has not locked in a price rise in Scandinavia or anywhere. The move was seen by some observers as a test run at increasing prices in other markets: While the subscription prices of all streaming services vary across the globe, the fact remains that even though Spotify is the world’s largest DSP, with nearly 110 million paying customers, it is many years away from turning a profit, with music companies clamoring for a bigger share of its revenue. Unlike Apple or Amazon, music is not a secondary business for Spotify, and it needs to find more routes to profitability. It is not surprising that a price hike in certain markets could be one.