Spotify's cost just increased — here are the best alternatives

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Spotify's price increase may drive you to a different service. Luckily, there are many options.

Spotify beta for Windows on ARM
(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)

What you need to know

  • Spotify just announced a price increase for several of its plans.
  • An individual play now costs $10.99 per month, which is an increase of $1 per month.
  • The Premium Duo plan increased by $2 per month, while the Premium Family plan went up $1 per month.
  • You can migrate your playlists, albums, and music collections from Spotify to other music services with a variety of tools.

Spotify is the latest streaming service to increase the cost of its subscriptions. Starting today, Spotify Premium for individuals will cost $10.99 per month, which is an increase of $1 per month. Spotify Premium Duo has bumped up $2 per month to $14.99 per month and Spotify Family has increased by $1 to $16.99 per month.

With those price increases, some people may ask themselves if it's worth switching to another service. While Spotify is a well-known brand, it is far from the only music streaming service these days. Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and YouTube Music all offer similar libraries of content.

It's important to note that some of Spotify's competitors have also raised their prices. Google is increasing the price of YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube Music, to $13.99 per month, as reported by 9to5Google. YouTube's standalone Music Premium service is also increasing from $9.99 per month to $10.99 per month.

Best alternatives to Spotify

There are a ton of music streaming services these days, many of which are worth a look. But the best Spotify alternatives are YouTube Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Apple Music. These offer a similar library of songs and are in the same price range as Spotify Premium.

While you may not save money by switching to another music streaming service, you may be able to get better value. One could argue that YouTube Premium, which gets you an ad-free experience for videos plus YouTube Music, is a better value than Spotify Premium, even though the total cost per month is more.

Similarly, Amazon Music Unlimited can be purchased at a discount by Prime members, making a collection of Amazon subscriptions a solid option.

Some of today's popular music services have apps on Windows, such as Amazon Music. But even those that don't have official apps can be used through the web and installed as Progressive Web Apps.

Apple Music | $10.99 per month

Apple Music | $10.99 per month

Apple's music streaming service boasts over 70 million songs, live radio stations anchored by renowned personalities, and thousands of curated playlists spanning every genre you can imagine.

View Deal
YouTube Music Premium | $10.99 per month

YouTube Music Premium | $10.99 per month

YouTube Music is one of our favorite music streaming apps. It has a wide selection of official tracks. Thanks to its connection to YouTube, you can also access tons of unofficial tracks.

View Deal
YouTube Premium | $13.99 per month

YouTube Premium | $13.99 per month

YouTube Premium brings together YouTube and YouTube Music, bundling Google's two services for an ad-free experience across both apps.

View Deal
Amazon Music Unlimited | $9.99 per month ($7.99 for Prime members)

Amazon Music Unlimited | $9.99 per month ($7.99 for Prime members)

This streaming service isn't as well-known as Spotify, but it has 60 million songs that you can listen to ad-free. You can save $2 per month on it if you're already a Prime member.

View Deal

Spotify price increase: Transferring your playlists 

If you plan to switch streaming services, one of the biggest hassles will be transferring over all of your playlists. That is, unless you use a service to move everything over. There are several options that have similar functionality.

Soundiiz is one of the highest rated services for transferring playlists and music collections. It has a free plan that lets you move playlists one at a time. You can upgrade to premium for $4.50 per month to get more advanced options. Note that you can cancel your subscription at any time, so after you've moved everything over you can stop paying for premium.

Some other options include FreeYourMusic, which has a Windows app, and SongShift, which is only on iOS.

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Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He's covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean's journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_. 

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • fjtorres5591
    Get used to it.
    All services are going to go up.
    Dumping Spotify or Netflix or GamePass over a price increase will only land you in a service that hasn't raised prices *yet*.
    In a word: inflation.

    You don't raise the price of food, clothing, gas, and pretty much everything physical without impacting the cost of everything else.

    The effect of high inflation is that money is worth less, and if money is worth less in purchasing power, the price of everything must go up proportionally.

    The only exceptions are things that would naturally have gone down *without* high inflation, which allows the vendors to stay at the price point instead of moving down as they oterwise would. Case in point: consoles. We are heading into the fourth holiday season, or the third full season if we ignire the year of pandemic scarcity. By now we should be looking at a list price drop of at least 10% at the high end and 25% at the low end. Odds are we'll see them for black friday but by January the prices will be back close to what thdy were at introduction.

    Basing decisions on incremental price increases alone is futile.
    The options are to judge value and adapt. Either suck it up or drop it altogether.

    We've had thirty years of artificially low interest rates. Those days are over. Now it's back to the "normal" of the 60's and 80's.
    Reply
  • fjtorres5591
    Addendum: Amazon just raised prices by a dollar For their music subscription.
    Higher operating costs, higher subscription price.
    Of course, the artists don't get an increase.
    Reply