(CTN News) – The Spotify monthly premium subscription will increase by 13 cents to €11.12, while the family plan will increase by 22 cents to €18.21 per month.
It is anticipated that both of these additions will take place. Each month, a seven-cent increase will be implemented to elevate the student subscription to €6.06. The total price of the plan for two individuals will be €15.17, with an additional 18 cents added to the price.
Customers who have already subscribed will experience an increase in their monthly payments starting in June, rather than a change this week. This modification will be implemented.
The change will result in higher Spotify fees for French subscribers.
This is due to France’s membership in the European Union. In the past, the platform had discouraged users from taking this specific next action. Spotify issued a statement subsequent to the implementation of France’s “streaming tax” the previous year. According to the statement, “As we have stated for a long time, we simply cannot absorb any additional taxes.”
In December, the government announced that companies in the audio streaming industry with sales exceeding twenty million euros would be required to contribute one and a half percent of their revenue collected in France. Companies with revenues exceeding twenty million euros were subjected to this obligation.
The levy is expected to generate approximately fifteen million euros and will be allocated to France’s “Centre National de la Musique,” which provides research and subsidies to the country’s music industry.
Spotify issued a press release.
The platform will launch in March. The statement stated that “Spotify has proudly championed French artists for the past 15 years.” “We certainly didn’t wait for the CNM to be created in 2020 to help artists find success in France and outside of France.”
Spotify, however, emphasized that it will be “obligated to contribute approximately two-thirds of each euro” it generates to the French government and rights proprietors as a consequence of the new levy. This was in response to the implementation of the new levy.
It considers this situation to be unsustainable because it does not entail an increase in prices for customers.
In order to safeguard France’s music industry, a number of companies that were opposed to the streaming tax proposed an alternative voluntary contribution model the previous year. Apple, Deezer, Meta, Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube comprised these organizations. Nevertheless, the government rejected this concept and did not endorse it.
Spotify subsequently opted to cease its sponsorship of two music festivals that were held in France. The Francofolies de La Rochelle and the Printemps de Bourges were the names of these festivals.
Following a year of cost-cutting, Spotify announced its tax policy.
In 2023, the corporation terminated twenty percent of its employees, which is equivalent to approximately two thousand individuals.
Spotify generated a net income of 197 million euros during the initial three months of 2024, despite generating a total of 3.6 billion euros in revenue. This information was disclosed to the public at the conclusion of March of this year. The company experienced a loss of 225 million euros during the same time period in the previous year, despite having sales of three billion euros during the same period.
Despite the fact that Spotify subscribers in France are subject to the highest subscription fees in the European Union, it is crucial to remember that consumers in the United Kingdom pay even more for their plans than those in France.
The two-person plan costs £16.99 (€19.99) per month, while the premium subscription costs £11.99 (€14.11) per month. The premium subscription is intended for two individuals. The student plan and the family package both incur a monthly fee of £5.99 (or €7.05). The family plan incurs a monthly fee of £19.99 (€23.52).
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