Spotify has been forced to increase subscription prices in France due to tax hikes.
The streaming giant is facing a 1.2 tax on its revenue after the European country decided to increase the amount streaming services pay to help artists creating music.
“While Spotify worked very hard to encourage the government to avoid adding this tax, unfortunately they decided to move forward. To put it bluntly, all French users will see their subscription plan fee go up. French users will now pay the highest subscriptions across the European Union,” a representative of Spotify said in a statement.
It’s not yet been revealed how much the subscription will rise to. It’s currently 10,99 euros for Premium.
“It will simply come at the expense of listeners and create an additional middleman: the CNM. From the extra tax, the government hopes to raise 15 million euros to help fund new music creativity. CNM boss Jean-Philippe Thiellay insists 100 percent of this tax will be re-injected into the sector,” the statement read referring to The Centre National de la Musique, a public-private partnership, operating under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture.
