For years, there has been one quick solution to at least partially remedy the low royalty payments most musicians receive from streaming services: Raise subscription prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past several years, streaming has revived a music industry that had seen its revenue literally cut in half due to illegal downloading and plummeting CD sales. Yet the the U.S. subscription price, which was set at $9.99 per month at the dawn of the streaming age more than two decades ago to mirror the cost of a Blockbuster video-rental subscription, implausibly had not budged until recent weeks. In fact, the ground war for market share had become so grueling that streamers were competing in a race to the bottom, via dozens of different plans \u2014 including ad-supported, a.k.a. free models, student and family plans, bundling and more \u2014 all of which added up to less money for musicians and songwriters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt makes no sense,\u201d Milana Lewis, CEO of the distribution and payments platform Stem, told Variety earlier this year. . \u201cThe price of everything else on earth is going up, and they all keep finding new ways to make subscriptions cheaper.\u201d Surveys have shown that users are willing to pay more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that is finally changing. On Monday, Apple Music raised its subscription price $10.99 a month for individuals, with the family plan jumping two dollars to $16.99 per month, among other plan increases. YouTube is raising the price of its U.S. Premium Family Plan to $22.99 from $17.99. Deezer, which is a smaller player in the U.S. but the fourth or fifth largest globally (depending on whether one counts China-only Tencent) has raised its prices internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During Spotify\u2019s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the company is considering one as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen our competitors are raising their prices, that is really good for us,\u201d he said, noting that the company has raised prices more than 40 times in markets around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raising the subscription price in the U.S., the world\u2019s largest music market by far, \u201cis one of the things we would like to do and it\u2019s something we will [discuss] with our label partners. I feel good about this upcoming year, and what it means about pricing for our service,\u201d he said, without providing further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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