Spotify hikes prices but South Africa is still cheap for music streaming

Pricing for music streaming services in South Africa has been relatively flat across the board since the launch of Simfy Africa pioneered in the local market more than a decade ago. That’s starting to change.

The industry has evolved since Simfy’s launch, with large international streamers such as Apple and YouTube Music (US), Spotify (Sweden), Tidal (Norway/US) and Deezer (France) growing to define the music streaming market both locally and internationally.

Yet, until recently, most of these streaming services charged only R60/month for unlimited access, even as the rand has plunged against major currencies, including the euro and the dollar.

To mitigate the effects of a weaker rand on their revenues, other international software-as-a-service-type businesses – using the same subscription revenue model as the music streamers – have implemented price hikes frequently and significantly, often at rates well above inflation. Adobe Creative Cloud, Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft 365 have all seen prices jacked up in the past year.

The tide, however, seems to be turning against local consumers. Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal have all announced price increases sometime this year.

Spotify this week became the latest to hike prices, notifying its Premium subscribers of a price increase to its Individual and Duo plans. Individual pricing goes from R59.99 to R64.99/month, while Duo, which allows two people to stream on one subscription goes from R79.99 to R84.99/month. Pricing for the Family plan has been left unchanged while the discounted student tier is now R34.99 from R29.99/month.

Read: Huge increase in Apple Music and TV+ prices in South Africa

“We’re increasing the price of [our subscriptions] so that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product offerings and features, and bring you the best experience,” Spotify told its subscribers.

Although the average increase of just over 7% in Spotify’s pricing is slightly above inflation, it comes nowhere near matching the sharp deterioration in the value of the rand in recent years.

A pricing comparison across three mature markets – the UK, US and Germany – and two emerging markets – South African and Kenya – shows that streaming services continue to absorb costs in weaker-currency markets. All prices in the table below are for individual plans. The exchange rate used was accurate as of the morning of 4 October 2023.  — (c) 2023 NewsCentral Media

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