Photo Credit: Brett Jordan

Following fresh U.S. price increases from Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music, Apple Music has once again upped its own subscription charges – including a nearly 18% bump for Family.

The Apple-owned DSP reached out to DMN with word of the upward adjustments, which went into effect this morning. Now, stateside subscribers are paying $11.99 per month for Apple Music Individual and $19.99 per month for Family – up from $10.99 and $16.99 per month, respectively.

As many will recognize, the increased prices, like those implemented by Amazon Music in March, are beneath their Spotify counterparts: $12.99 monthly for the audiobook-equipped Individual tier and $21.99 monthly for Family.

Technically, Amazon Music Unlimited undercut Spotify with its Prime member pricing on Individual, which will set non-Prime members back $12.99 per month. On the other hand, Unlimited Family costs $21.99 per month – though one can secure a discount by enabling annual billing on a full-year subscription.

Put differently, there are many moving parts in play when it comes to streaming pricing, and the days of an across-the-board $9.99 monthly price tag for Individual are little more than a distant memory.

For rightsholders, that’s just as well; even setting aside DSPs’ considerable feature and music additions in recent years, inflation alone means the time was (and evidently remains) right to increase prices.

To be sure, the major labels have long been pushing for streaming price increases in established markets – besides advocating for adjacent steps to enhance ARPU, the adoption of “a modest fee” for ad-supported accounts, and more.

On the opposite side of the equation, however, the trend isn’t quite as popular among consumers, many of whom are taking to social media to vent about on-demand streaming’s pricing.

Of course, the obvious risk here is that fed-up fans will axe their subscriptions en masse, thereby turning established markets’ well-documented paid-user plateaus (and in some instances declines) into a mass exodus. The possibility is especially interesting for Spotify given the service’s relaxed free-tier restrictions.

(Plus, the AI slop avalanche is hitting certain platforms harder than others; Deezer is alone in tagging machine-made garbage, and Qobuz, which in February published an “AI Charter,” is posting solid revenue growth. Meanwhile, the affordability-minded Pandora charges $10.99 per month for Individual and $17.99 per month for Family.)

Furthermore, Apple Music doesn’t have an ad-supported option and has historically been reluctant to raise prices – instead focusing on leveraging Music (as well as features including Spatial Audio therein) to drive value across its wider hardware ecosystem.

As such, it only in February that the DSP indicated new increases weren’t in the near-term cards. Regarding what changed in the interim, Apple emailed DMN a brief statement attributing the pricing recalibrations to “rising licensing costs.

“As a result of rising licensing costs, Apple Music is increasing its subscription price beginning today,” Apple said to DMN.

Is the shift indicative of additional upcoming changes across the streaming space? It certainly seems that way. Late May brought hints of possible new subscription tiers on Apple Music, and Spotify’s AI-heavy “Super-Premium” ambitions aren’t a secret.