Technologies

Spotify Raises Premium Subscription Price Globally (but Not in the US… Yet)

The price of a Premium Individual subscription goes up to nearly $14 for overseas markets but remains at $12 in the US.

For many global customers, the cost of streaming their favorite music on Spotify is about to have a bigger impact on their wallets.

The music streaming service announced that it’s raising the monthly price of a premium subscription for markets in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. The price change will vary based on each region’s local currency, but in Euro-using countries, a premium subscription will go up 1 euro a month to 11.99 euros ($13.87), and in the United Kingdom, it will go up by one pound a month.

The price for US-based subscribers will not go up — for now at least. That likely won’t last — the company raised the price by a dollar in 2023 and another dollar in 2024. It now costs $12.

In its announcement Monday, Spotify said it was introducing the price increase «so that we can continue to innovate on our product offerings and features, and bring you the best experience.»

Stuart Dredge, head of insight at Music Ally and co-host of The Price of Music podcast, calledi it «a positive move» after years of subscription price stagnation.

«More money coming in means more being paid out, which is good for artists and songwriters — even with all the arguments still going on about how that money is shared out,» Dredge said. «Personally, £11.99 a month still feels like good value for the entire catalog of recorded music, especially when you compare it to the streaming video world.»

The announcement gave a shot in the arm to Spotify’s share price during Monday’s trading, with a nearly 7% increase in the stock price at the NYSE. The share price had dropped 11.5% on July 29 after the company’s profit forecast fell below what analysts had predicted.

Music streaming remains a huge business

Spotify retains a comfortable market share lead among music streaming apps. By the end of 2024, the Sweden-based app was No. 1 with a nearly 32 percent market share, followed far behind by Tencent, Apple, Amazon and YouTube. One-third of the music streaming market is in North America,and the US market is expected to grow by 13% by 2030.

A representative for Luminate, a music and entertainment data and analytics company, said that music streams reached nearly 5 trillion globally in 2024.

«Our 2025 Midyear Music Report shows continued streaming growth, but the rate has slowed compared to recent years,» said a Luminate spokesperson. «Instead, there is an appetite for more innovation and new areas of music discovery from music listeners.

«Whether it’s streaming activity on gaming platforms or attitudes towards AI-generated content, younger listeners are more open to non-traditional and transmedia engagement,» the spokesperson added. «That should be a sign that opportunities for growth are shifting, not decreasing.»

Technologies

Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it

In a world where information defines influence, Verum Messenger is building a new architecture of digital communication — intelligent, secure, and ready for tomorrow. Here, technology serves not limitations, but possibilities.

Not being part of change. Leading it. Verum Messenger — the future that speaks first.

Technologies

Verum Finance: Stop Spending Months Opening a Bank Account

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The future of finance and communication is already here.
Verum — when freedom matters more than banking rules.

Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal