Spotify Subscription Surge: Company Points To New “Streaming Tax”

By David Charlebois
Staff Writer

Spotify is the most popular music streaming service. Recently, however, its users have received notifications stating subscription costs would be going up (again). The last time this occurred was over a year ago in July 2023. The price for a premium subscription is rising from $10.99 to $12.69, with the student account going from $5.99 to $6.39.

The company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, is blaming the newly introduced Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act as the reason for the increase in Canadian markets. The issue many people have with the new pricing, even after understanding why it’s in place, is the fact that the 5% tax doesn’t match the increase to subscriptions with the family plan increasing by 24% while the cost of the individual plan rises by 15%. It seems the bill allowed companies to gauge prices; this time using the new taxes as an excuse for the increase. At $12.99 for a regular premium subscription, Spotify is now on the pricier side, with competitors like Apple Music and YouTube Music both having a monthly price of $10.99.

Bill C-11 extends the 1991 Broadcasting Act to include online streaming platforms, making them liable to donate 5% of their Canadian profits to support local programming.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is a regulator in the Canadian market. It is an independent organization and receives guidelines from the federal government on what to do with this new funding, which is estimated to be over 200 million in 2024-25. The funding will be allocated to Canadian media as well as local productions such as news. Despite that, there is the potential downside of companies refusing to pay the tax and omitting Canadian artists. The market as a whole could risk being flouted, although, with the fairly low rates, this isn’t too likely.