Spotify Is Set To Hike Subscription Prices In This Country

Swedish music streaming giant Spotify has announced it will raise subscription prices in France in response to a new tax. The streaming service argues that the tax, implemented by the government last year at 1.2 per cent on streaming companies’ revenue, will not achieve its intended goal of supporting music creation, the media has reported.

“While Spotify worked very hard to encourage the government to avoid adding this tax, unfortunately they decided to move forward,” Spotify was quoted as saying in a statement by news agency Reuters.

Spotify’s decision comes about three months after the company pledged to start divesting in France, starting by withdrawing support from two festivals and hinting at further actions throughout the year. 

The tax, effective since January 1, imposes a 1.2 per cent levy on Spotify and its competitors, such as Deezer, Apple Music, and Google’s YouTube Music. The funds will be directed to France’s Centre National de la Musique (CNM), established four years ago, in a bit to aid the French music industry. While all affected companies oppose the law, Spotify, being the largest player in the country, has been the most outspoken in its opposition, the report added.

Spotify has also stated that it would reveal the extent of the price hike at a later date. In its announcement, the company criticised the tax, asserting that it was misdirected and would not contribute to music creation.

When it comes to France, Spotify is expressing as much, if not more, discontent with the new tax as it did with Uruguay, the TechCrunch has reported However, unlike its response in Uruguay, Spotify has not hinted at leaving the country. Despite arguing that it’s essentially paying artists twice (described by Spotify as “equivalent to a double payment”), the company prefers to raise its prices rather than contemplate exiting the market.

Meanwhile, earlier in February, Cupertino-based Apple started testing a new feature allowing users to transfer their music collections from other streaming services, such as Spotify, to Apple Music. This feature was said to be gradually introduced and was accessible to a limited number of users using the beta version of the Android app.

SongShift, a third-party service available exclusively on iOS. SongShift enables users to transfer their music collections and playlists from one streaming service to another and is accessible as a standalone app on iOS.