If you subscribed to Apple TV for Severance, you won’t like this. The monthly subscription price in the US has INCREASED from $9.99 to $12.99 as of August 21, 2025.
New subscribers will have to pay the higher fee right away, whereas existing subscribers have the luxury of waiting until their next billing cycle. It’s not just TV either. Spotify listeners are feeling the squeeze, too. The monthly price of Spotify Premium is now $2.00 more across the world, adding up to a not-insignificant $24.00 per year.
Why are they raising the prices?
Apple claims its 30% price hike reflects its investment in “ad-free, high-end originals”, like Severance, Slow Horses, and Silo. Granted, these shows did well and brought in a lot of viewers, but critics argue that the overall content library just doesn’t hold a candle to more established movie-watching platforms like Netflix.
The fact that Apple TV+ doesn’t offer a cheaper, ad-supported tier only adds insult to injury.
Spotify, at least, does offer this as an option, although you don’t get paid to watch the ads over there. On the Spotify website, the company claims their regular price updates (read: increases) allow for innovation in changing market conditions. However, with Spotify’s famously pathetically-low artist royalties it’s hard to see where this extra money is going aside from an AI DJ no one asked for.
Subscribers are LIVID
Fans haven’t hidden their rage, and many have taken to Reddit to voice their frustration at the greed these subscription services are showing:
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byu/MarvelsGrantMan136 from discussion
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With Spotify supposedly pursuing profitability and delivering its first annual profit in 2024 thanks partly to price hikes, it’s unlikely we’re going to see the end of this any time soon.
Some disgruntled subscribers are even hinting towards a return to torrenting and illegal streaming in retaliation to this price change:
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byu/Isiddiqui from discussion
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Whatever happens, it doesn’t look like we’ll see the end of this trend for quite some time. Without true ownership of digital goods, people will never be able to trust corporations to stop constantly raising the prices of their products when consumer access depends upon a constant payment.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy good TV and music at a decent price again, but it’s hard to see how. At least you’ll be able to pay for the price hike with Freecash.
