Spotify is shaking up its premium offering and introducing new tiers called Premium Lite, Premium Standard, and Premium Platinum in five markets, including India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
Prior to this change, in markets like India, Spotify offered Premium Standard, Duo (for two people), and Family plans for six people, with features like ad-free listening, offline support, and high-quality audio. The new Premium tiers will offer these features in different configurations, based on the plan.
For instance, the Premium Lite plan priced at ₹139 per month ($1.57) will get ad-free listening and 160 kbps audio quality. The Premium Standard plan, priced at ₹199 per month($2.25), has offline support and 320 kbps audio quality. The most costly Premium Platinum plan at ₹299 ($3.37) per month will give users access to the newly launched Lossless tier, along with two other seats that can share the account.
The Platinum plan also gives users access to Spotify’s AI DJ feature that provides commentary while playing songs, and lets you make requests. And it offers access to the audio platform’s AI-powered playlist creation tool.
In September, Spotify announced integration with AI software like rekordbox, Serato, and djay, to import users’ libraries to create sets and mixes. The Platinum tier will allow users to access this integration, as well.
Notably, these features have existed in other markets such as North America and Europe for some time. But the five countries where Spotify is launching these new premium tiers are gaining access to some of these features for the first time.
Multiple reports over the past few years have hinted at the company introducing a “super premium” plan with access to the lossless tier. While at the moment, this plan exists only for select markets, the company could extend it globally to all markets, putting lossless into the highest tier. (At the moment, all Premium users in more than 50 countries can experience tracks at 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC quality.)
The company said that if users have an existing account, their subscription will carry over. However, new subscribers won’t be able to pay for the old Duo or the Family plan and will have to choose one of the new plans instead.
For new subscribers in India, Spotify is increasing the subscription prices while reducing some of the benefits users got in the previous Premium plan. The Standard individual plan currently costs ₹139 ($1.57) per month, which is the price of the new Lite plan. The Family plan costs ₹229 ($2.58) per month with inclusion for six members. Account sharing is only possible with the new Platinum plan that costs ₹299 ($3.37) and allows for the inclusion of three users. Users who might not care about lossless streaming or AI features won’t have any option.
The company has made changes to its pricing plans in other markets as well. In the last two years, it has bumped the U.S. pricing from $9.99 to $11.99 per month across two $1 jumps.
