Some YouTube Music Premium early adopters with introductory rates will be seeing a price hike soon
Loyal subscribers who hopped onto YouTube's "Music Key" streaming service back in 2014 might need to brace themselves for a price bump on their YouTube Music Premium subscriptions. It seems those early bird discounts are about to fly the coop.
European users who were among the first to embrace the service are reporting that they have begun to receive notifications from YouTube Music about the upcoming change. These notifications signal an impending price adjustment, bringing the monthly cost up to €10.99, in line with the standard rate for the service.
According to the notices being sent, the price change will take place sometime in March, giving current subscribers a 3-month grace period at the current pricing and promising to notify the affected users once again 30 days before the new pricing goes into effect.
Additionally, as cleared up by Google, this price change will only affect certain locations outside of the United Stated. Namely, these are the countries where the price hike will apply: Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Uruguay, and Turkey.
Notification sent by Google to notify the affected price hike users | Image credit — 4w3som3
This change marks the end of a long-standing perk for those who have been with YouTube Music Premium since its early days. While this news might come as a bit of a shock, it's important to remember that the music streaming landscape has evolved significantly since 2014.
YouTube Music Premium has steadily added features and improvements, including ad-free listening, offline downloads, and background playback. These features have become staples in the music streaming world, and YouTube Music Premium offers them alongside a vast library of songs and music videos.
The shift in pricing might encourage some users to re-evaluate their music streaming options. However, for those deeply integrated into the YouTube ecosystem, the convenience and features of YouTube Music Premium might still outweigh the increased cost.
I don't think this news should surprise anyone as the writing has long been on the wall. It will be interesting to see how this affects subscriber numbers and whether other music streaming services follow suit with similar price adjustments.
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