By Rita Uzuh
October 22, 2024

Spotify has announced a price hike for its Premium Individual subscription, increasing the monthly fee from N900 to N1,300, effective November 2024. The music streaming platform disclosed the update in an email to its Nigerian subscribers, explaining that the price increase is necessary to continue enhancing product offerings and improving user experience.

“We’re increasing the price of Premium Individual so that we can continue to innovate on our product offerings and features and bring you the best experience,” Spotify said in its message to users.

While the company did not explicitly reference the decline of the naira, the increase follows a broader trend among technology companies operating in Nigeria, many of which have raised their subscription fees in response to the currency’s steep devaluation and rising inflation.

A source close to the platform had previously hinted at a potential price review, citing that Spotify’s services in Nigeria are among the cheapest globally. “Our services cost about $0.50 in Nigeria. It is the cheapest in the world, and it may no longer be sustainable,” the source noted.

The sharp devaluation of the naira followed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) foreign exchange market unification in 2023, which saw the currency plummet from N471/$ to N1603.16/$ by October 21, 2024. The weaker naira and rising inflation, which reached 32.7 percent in September 2023, have forced numerous tech companies, including Netflix, Google, DSTV, GOtv, and Microsoft, to raise their prices in Nigeria.

Netflix, for instance, has seen its lower price band rise by 83.33 percent, with its higher tier jumping by 59.09 percent in less than six months.

“We offer a range of prices and plans to meet a wide range of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more,” a Netflix spokesperson explained earlier this year.

Similarly, MultiChoice, the parent company of DSTV and GOtv, has implemented price hikes, citing the rising cost of doing business. “The rise in the cost of business operations has led us to make this difficult decision,” the company said.

Other services like Starlink have followed suit, with the cost of its hardware skyrocketing by 115.25 percent to N590,000. Starlink attributed its price increase to the country’s high inflation rate, noting the impact of economic conditions on its operations.

The latest price hike by Spotify is expected to affect millions of users in Nigeria, who are already grappling with higher costs across various services due to the ongoing economic challenges.