Spotify’s price hikes are piling up just as Americans feel subscription fatigue. What was once the poster child for cheap, all-you-can-stream music is starting to feel… expensive. The streaming giant announced it will raise its U.S. Premium plan to $12.99 per month starting in February 2026. This marks the third price increase in three years for U.S. users. This jump also affects other plans with Duo rising to $18.99 and Family to $21.99.  

That shift matters because Spotify spent more than a decade training users to believe streaming should cost about ten bucks. That psychological anchor has held since its inception even as the price drifts away from it. Yet here’s the conundrum: people keep on paying.  

Regardless of these price moves, Spotify’s user base still shows resilience. In Q3 2025, Premium subscribers grew 12% year-over-year to 281 million paying users, while monthly active users hit 713 million globally. This signaled the existence of retained demand even with rising costs. In addition, the company also reported robust profitability with operating income generating €582 million ($680 million) for the quarter. 

Spotify’s growth masks an underlying consumer frustration that hasn’t eased down. Many longtime listeners are reminiscing about how Spotify's U.S. Premium plans used to be. When it stayed at $9.99 for over a decade, with only incremental hikes in 2023 moving first to $10.99 and then $11.99 before the latest rise. The cumulative effect is now a 30% increase in price in under three years, raising questions about the perception of value. 

The contrast between subscriber growth and price sensitivity is exacerbating the situation. Spotify added millions of paying subscribers over 5 million new Premium users in Q3 2025 alone but users’ sentiment on this remains divisive. The higher prices aren’t doing a good job at justifying what it offers when it hasn’t changed in terms of music discovery or audio quality. 

Meanwhile it would be remiss not to mention that the competitive landscape is shifting. Users are already looking for alternatives like Apple Music, Tidal and YouTube Music that operate at the price of $10.99/month. Spotify’s jump to $12.99 per month is persuading cost-conscious listeners to reassess their streaming dollars.   

For now, Spotify may not be losing listeners yet, but it is burning through goodwill. As prices climb and features remain the same. The real risk isn’t an immediate exodus, but a slow recalibration of value. When “the default music app” stops feeling like a bargain, staying becomes a choice, not a habit.  

For many listeners, this feels like inflation by another name especially when streaming costs are already under pressure. Axios notes that “recorded music and music subscriptions” costs have risen alongside other media inflation, contributing to a growing affordability headache for American households juggling multiple services.