What to know

  • Spotify has released a new ‘Basic’ plan for those in the USA for $10.99.
  • The plan will include all Premium benefits except the monthly audiobook listening time.
  • The plan is released less than a month after Spotify increased the price of its Premium plan from $10.99 to $11.99.

After increasing the price for its Premium plan for the umpteenth time in the past nine months, Spotify has now introduced a new ‘Basic’ plan for users who don’t want to be charged extra for audiobooks.   

Earlier, Spotify had justified its price hikes by adding audiobooks  – which nobody asked for – to the platform. This meant that whether you liked it or not, you’d get 15 hours of free audiobooks and will have to pay the increased subscription price of $11.99 per month. 

But thanks to the new Basic plan, which is simply what the Premium plan looked like previously, users who’ve been considering leaving the platform will be able to continue using the service without having to pay more. 

Although one might be willing to let Spotify off the hook with the release of the ‘Basic’ plan at older prices, this move raises more questions than it answers. Instead of making audiobooks optional before, why are Premium subscribers automatically charged more, and why does one manually have to switch to the Basic plan?  

Spotify has caught a lot of flak from its userbase on the back of such sneaky policies. And it appears it’s counting on users who’re unaware of such tactics to make an extra buck (literally). 

With Spotify Lossless on the horizon, there’s every justification in the book for the Swedish company to hike its price again.