Spotify raised prices again in February — the third hike in three years, as Michael Beausoleil tallies it. Individual Premium now runs $12.99 a month, Duo $18.99, Family $21.99, Student $6.99. A subscription that cost $9.99 for over a decade has climbed 30% since 2023. So the question practically asks itself: still worth it?
What you're paying for
Spotify's case for the money hasn't changed — it's the default for a reason. The discovery machine remains the best in streaming: Discover Weekly, daylist, and the AI DJ still surface music you didn't know you wanted, and reviewers at ClickOff consistently rank that engine as the platform's core advantage. Music, podcasts, and audiobooks live in one app. It runs on effectively everything — phone, car, console, smart speaker — and playlist portability makes it the social standard: sharing works because everyone's already there.
For a specific user, the math still clears easily. If you listen a couple of hours a day, work out or commute offline, and lean on the algorithm to keep things fresh, $12.99 buys a lot of daily utility, ecoustics concludes in its post-hike analysis.
Where the value cracks
Audio quality is the sore spot. As iDropNews points out, Apple Music includes lossless and hi-res audio at a comparable price, and Amazon Music does the same — while Spotify's long-promised hi-fi tier is still not broadly available in the U.S. Paying more each year for the same bitrate is the part power listeners can't unhear.
Casual listeners have a cheaper exit, too. If you mostly play music at a desk or around the house, Spotify's own free tier or YouTube Music covers that life without a bill, per ClickOff's breakdown. And the hikes themselves are the pattern to price in: three in three years, with ad-supported and premium tiers both drifting upward. Beausoleil's blunt conclusion: subscribers should assume this isn't the last one.
Who should pay, who should walk
Keep it if the algorithm is doing real work for you — daily listening, offline hours, playlists that follow you across devices and friends. Nothing else combines discovery and ubiquity this well.
Split it if you can. Family at $21.99 covers up to six accounts — under $4 per person, still one of the best per-head deals in streaming. Duo does the same job for couples. Students at $6.99 shouldn't overthink it.
Switch if sound quality is the point. Apple Music gives you lossless for roughly the same monthly cost, and if you're deep in Apple hardware the integration is better anyway.
Downgrade if you're honest about being a light listener. Run the free tier for a month; if the ads don't bother you, the $156 a year buys nothing you were using.
Verdict
Spotify in 2026 is a very good product with a pricing trajectory you should assume continues. The recommendation engine is still worth paying for; the premium you pay for identical audio quality is not getting easier to justify. Worth it — for the listener who actually uses it. For everyone else, the free tier is the review.
Rating: keep, but audit yourself annually. Spotify certainly will.
Image: Garley Gibson, via Pexels
