US vs. UK prices!

[gjp1506]

Why is Spotify in the US priced at $9.99 for Premium and in the UK it's £9.99. That makes it almost 60% more expensive in the UK compared to the US! Why?!?!?!?!?!?

[Noggles]

In Denmark you pay 100kr for prenium, which is even mpre then £9.99.. bah

[AB99]

Seriously, how do they justify this? "Simple pricing model" my ass. This is a blatant ripoff, charging europeans substantially more for the exact same service. 

For shame Spotify. For shame.

[grantsmith]

I was thinking the same. Dont get me wrong, I think Spotify is great value for money. However I do begruge paying £4 extra for the same service as another country.

A yearly subscription is £74.28 in the US compared to £120 in the UK. £45.72 is a lot of money for no additional service.

[Jude]

There has been a discussion of this in the Ideas board. A great deal of material is covered.

[SteveBrammer]

Jude,

There's a strange problem with your link.

[MattSuda]

Corrected link:

http://community.spotify.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/ideaexchange/article-id/8197/

[SteveBrammer]

Thanks mattjsrules for posting a working link.

Jude, I think I have made my views clear on this before, but posting a link to a thread that has no responses from Spotify is worthless, a cop out and just plain lazy and will only irritate the poster of this thread even more.

[DiMuTech]

 here in Sweden it is 99 kronor which is roughly the same as U.K.

[Peter__]

Don't forget about taxation. 

In the UK (and I would assume in europe) the £9.99 includes 20% VAT. 

The $9.99 fee payable in the US does not have tax (sales tax is added on top of that if required).

[user-removed]

$9.99 = £6.12 (at current exchange rate).

20% of £6.12 = £1.22.

£6.12 + £1.22 = £7.34.

So - Spotify is an extra £2.65 per month in the UK - over and above the VAT.

Thank you, but no.

[Josh]

Hello!

There is currently an idea about this, you can add your Kudos here 🙂 It really is unfair that it is more expensive in the UK, but i guess that this decision was made already 😕

[Peter__]

We pay more for most things, guess I'm just used to it! 

[liMayhem]

See that's where you're wrong - in the US you don't get taxes on Digital Services. It's not physical product, so it is pretty much exempt from taxation. As for Sales Tax, I'm unsure of that - but I don't think it would be a flat-rate, it would most likely be state-specific.

As for the UK - the whole "It's £9.99 because of 20% VAT" is absolutely rubbish. It's just that companies outside of the UK know that British people (Like me) are too stubborn and will basically pay what is being asked... I seriously request that Spotify look into a price reduction for the Brit's as we are paying way too much compared to other services like this... I can get a similar service with better features for £2.00 less a month! That's a big saving over the course of a year... That's why I canceled my Spotify premium, £120 a year is just too much to pay. If I could buy it in Dollars, I'd be happy to pay. But in GBP it's just expensive and Spotify know they are taking advantage...

[kollerowy]

in Poland its about 6$ There was two version. 3$ for premium PC and 6$ for TV and Smartphones.

[Robifa]

Totally agree. Just cancelled premium because of problems linking to sonos but always found the high UK price irritating.

[Peter__]

I've often wondered, since music on Spotify is licensed "per country" if you look in the catalogue via the metadata API or in groups of countries, does the licensing cost play a factor in the price we pay.

Guess that sort of thing is hard to find out since all of the deals that go on are pretty secretive!

[Clarky]

Pressure has to be placed on the supplier. The best way to do so is via the Government, be it UK trading Standards, DTI or the European Union. Adobe operate a similar and largely ridiculous pricing policy where they price based on 'what they think they can get away with'. In Australia the Government got involved on behalf of consumers and Adobe cut their prices inline with their US pricing. Remember this is a digital service and the costs of doing business abroad have barely any tangible impact and certainly don't account for the blatant profiteering. If enough people complain about unfair trade practices then Spotify will need to fall in line and charge a fairer price. Rip Off Britain exists because people are to easily prepared to pay exorbitant prices. Just say No. 

[zmeng1]

I have stopped subscribing to premuium spotify and moved to Beats Music for 99 USD a year!

[zmeng1]

I have stopped subscribing to premuium spotify and moved to Beats Music for 99 USD a year