Shares of
Spotify Technology
were falling Monday after the music streaming platform raised the monthly subscription price for its premium service. The announcement was made a day before the company announces its second-quarter earnings.
In a blog post Monday,
Spotify
(ticker: SPOT) said it raised its ad-free premium subscription price by $1. U.S. subscribers on a single-user plan will now have to pay $10.99 a month to listen to their favorite unlimited music and podcast downloads.
“The market landscape has continued to evolve since we launched. So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world. These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform,” the company said.
Shares of Spotify fell 5.5% Monday to $162.26, and were on pace for their largest percentage decrease since December 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Investors appeared concerned about what the move could mean for the company’s subscriber numbers.
Wall Street will want to hear more about the price boost will mean during Spotify’s second-quarter earnings call before the market opens Tuesday. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting Spotify to report a second-quarter loss of 70 cents a share on revenue of $3.6 billion. Last year, the company reported a loss of 86 cents a share on revenue of $2.9 billion.
Analysts also expect Spotify to report 217 million premium subscribers for its second quarter, a jump from 188 million a year earlier.
Spotify’s stock has surged 107% in 2023.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
Read the full article here
