Spotify premium prices increase in the US for second time in a year

Spotify is once again raising the prices of its Premium subscription tiers in the US.

A blog post shared by the company this week said the price hikes would happen so that it "can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features".

New users of the streaming platform will now be required to pay $11.99 a month for the standard individual Premium tier, an increase of $1. Premium Duo will now cost $16.99 a month (increased from $14.99), while Premium Family will rise by $3 to $19.99 a month.

Spotify Premium Student will not be affected by the changes, and will remain at its current price of $5.99 a month.

Existing US-based subscribers will receive an email about the increased prices, the company has said, with the note set to explain that the new subscription price will come into effect on their billing date in July.

This will be Spotify's second price hike in the past year, after the company announced last July that its flagship Premium subscription tier would be rising from $9.99 a month to $10.99. This was the first time the subscription cost had increased for US users.

The company also increased its subscription charges in around 50 other markets globally at the same time, while in April of this year, the Premium subscription increased from £10.99 a month to £11.99 in the UK, and from AUD $12.99 to AUD $13.99 in Australia.

The move comes just a few months after the streaming giant demonetised tracks with under 1,000 streams

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek recently caused controversy with musicians and music fans following comments he made in which he claimed "the cost of creating content" currently is "close to zero".