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Spotify has a new plan<\/a> for US subscribers that retains you on the outdated $11 month-to-month pricing \u2014 so long as you don\u2019t thoughts ditching audiobooks. The brand new Primary tier consists of the music and podcast content material you get from Premium however with out 15 hours of audiobook entry, a lately added characteristic we suspect many subscribers don\u2019t care about anyway. Spotify mentioned earlier this month it will hike Premium costs to $12 per thirty days, starting in July.<\/p>\n The Primary plan echoes one it rolled out<\/a> within the UK final month. That one prices \u00a311 per thirty days in comparison with \u00a312 for Premium with audiobook content material.<\/p>\n Some have suspected Spotify\u2019s audiobook push has nefarious motives. Earlier this month, the Nationwide Music Publishers\u2019 Affiliation requested the Federal Commerce Fee to research the transfer, going so far as calling the corporate\u2019s audiobook integration \u201ca scheme to extend earnings by deceiving customers and dishonest the music royalty system.\u201d The NMPA criticism claims Spotify can pay about $150 million much less in music royalties over the following yr due to its audiobook fusion. Spotify instructed Engadget it did nothing flawed and rejected the accusations.<\/p>\n Spotify has been penny-pinching in different areas. It was reported final yr that the corporate deliberate to overtake its royalty mannequin. One alleged a part of that plan was to demonetize tracks incomes lower than 5 cents per thirty days, pushing out some indie artists with out established audiences.<\/p>\n Spotify additionally laid off round 9,000 workers late final yr, citing \u201cthe hole between our monetary objective state and our present operational prices.\u201d<\/p>\n You possibly can swap to the audiobook-free tier (which is now reside) by navigating to your account page<\/a>, then \u201cHandle your plan\u201d and \u201cChange plan\u201d and choosing Primary. In case you\u2019re a brand new subscriber, you’ll be able to select the Primary possibility when signing up<\/a>.<\/p>\n Replace, June 21, 2024, 2:36 PM ET: This story has been up to date to notice that the flexibility to enroll in the Primary plan is now reside.<\/p>\n