- Online audio streaming platform Spotify is increasing prices for Premium subscribers by over 40%, saying the hike in the fee of Premium Individual will allow the team to continue innovating on its product offerings and features, providing users with the best experience.
- In a notification seen by Techpoint Africa, Spotify informed a user that, starting from their billing date in November, their subscription price will change from ₦900/month to ₦1,300/month.
- However, users who do not wish to continue paying for Premium at the new price can cancel via their account page, Spotify added.
This price increase coincides with Spotify’s introduction of Offline Backup for Premium users worldwide, allowing them to listen to music offline without the need for a download. Offline Backup appears in the Home feed when users are offline, have recently listened to more than five songs, and have offline listening enabled.
While it increases the price for Premium in Nigeria, Spotify partnered with Orange, France’s telco, in November 2023 to allow smartphone users in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Mali to listen to music on Spotify for free.
Moreover, in July 2024, Netflix, a video streaming platform, increased subscription prices in its Nigerian market for the second time in four months, following an earlier increase in April 2024.
The latest price update puts the Premium subscription plan at ₦7,000 ($4.40) monthly, up from the initial ₦5,000 ($3.14), indicating a 40% rise. Meanwhile, the April price hike saw its Premium Plan increase from ₦4,400 ($2.76) to ₦5,000 ($3.14).
Even the Internet service provider Starlink has recently doubled its subscription prices in Nigeria starting October 31, 2024, citing “excessive levels of inflation.” Its standard residential plan with a 1TB fair usage policy went from ₦38,000 ($24) to ₦75,000 ($48). For Roaming customers, the price increased from ₦49,000 to ₦167,000 per month.
However, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reportedly been criticised by stakeholders in the Nigerian telecom sector over Starlink’s price increase.
They described it as double standards, allowing Starlink, a new Internet service provider, to raise its prices by almost 100%, while denying local telecom operators’ requests to increase tariffs despite rising operational costs.
Stakeholders argue that this is unfair to local operators who have invested heavily in expanding telecom services in the country and are now being restricted from reviewing their prices.
