Spotify has the nastiest of surprises in store for US subscribers, here's when it'll hit you

Paying more for everything is kind of expected these days – and Spotify is the latest service that's to slam subscribers with price hikes.

That's what the latest detailed report has to say about the world's most popular audio streaming service by monthly active users.

Price hikes coming in Q1 2026

Spotify's price hikes were last discussed in the late summer of 2025, so I doubt this new report has it all wrong.

Moreover, this past September, Spotify raised the monthly price of its premium individual plan in multiple regions across the world, but not in the US. The cost increased from €10.99 to €11.99, a shift that affected subscribers across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific. The company positioned the move as part of its ongoing push to strengthen profit margins, an effort it had emphasized repeatedly in recent years.

So, now it's time for US subscribers to feel the price hikes, too. The new report doesn't spell out how much more users would pay for Spotify. But respected analysts claimed that a $1 US price hike in the monthly bill could boost Spotify's annual revenue by $500 million. For now, Spotify has declined to comment.

Catching up with inflation?

Major record labels had been urging Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms to raise their subscription prices, arguing that fees had not kept up with inflation and were still low compared with video services like Netflix.

In the US, Spotify's monthly rate was $11.99, only slightly higher than the $9.99 price it introduced 14 years earlier.

When asked about US pricing during an earnings call, incoming co-CEO Alex Norström said the company would raise prices only when the timing felt right for each market, choosing different approaches for different regions rather than using one plan for all.

Around the same period, Spotify announced a leadership transition. Daniel Ek said he would step down as chief executive in September and move into the role of executive chair. At the start of the following year, he planned to pass the CEO position to Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, two of the company's senior leaders.

Will this fly with subscribers?

Some Spotify subscribers would be furious, I get it: but the majority of people won't bat an eye. That's of course, if the price hike is the rumored $1 per month. These days, $1 gets you pretty much nothing, so going from $10 to $13 over a 14-year stretch would likely not feel like a major shift for most listeners.

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