Spotify‘s long-touted superfan tier appears to be taking shape – and could be launched this year.
Citing sources, Bloombergreported over the weekend that the streaming company is considering charging up to $5.99 more per month on top of a Premium subscription for access to a so-called ‘Music Pro’ tier, which would include various ‘superfan‘ perks.
An individual Premium subscription is currently priced at $11.99 in the US, following the most recent price rise in June 2024. This would bring the combined cost of a Premium subscription plus the Super Pro ad-on to around $18 per month.
That price range correlates with what Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told analysts in July last year when he confirmed that the company was working on a pricier tier.
Pricing will be different in various territories and will be less expensive “in less-developed markets,” Bloomberg reported.
According to the outlet’s sources, the rollout is being planned for this year. However, the sources added that finer details like cost and exact launch dates haven’t been confirmed because Spotify has yet to secure “rights from all of the major music companies.”
Perks that could be part of the new ‘Music Pro’ tier, according toBloomberg, include early access to concert tickets, AI-powered remix features, and higher-fidelity audio.
Bloombergpointed out that some of Spotify’s rivals already offer some of these individual features, such as Apple and Amazon‘s hi-fi offerings. It added, however, that SPOT will be stacking them into one service, “starting with a more basic version this year and adding features in the years to come”.
Spotify’s yet-to-be-introduced superfan tier was first referred to as ‘Music Pro‘ by Boyd Muir, Universal Music Group‘s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, at Morgan Stanley’s European Tech, Media, and Telecom Conference back in November.
Muir also suggested that between 20% and 30% of paying music subscribers will eventually sign up for superfan subscription tiers. He said that he expects most music streaming services will introduce rival superfan services and that these subscription tiers would start rolling out in 2025.
“Once it’s in the market, you sort of have to have a competitive offer,” he said.
The Financial Times also reported over the weekend that Spotify is preparing to launch a superfan tier this year.
The latest details about Spotify’s superfan tier arrive two weeks after Daniel Ek told analysts on SPOT’s Q4 earnings call that he is “coining” 2025, “the year of accelerated execution“.
Ek said on the company’s recent earnings call that Spotify is “going all in on [its] core and investing in more music experiences” on the streaming platform.
“Think video, think the higher-priced Premium tier that we’ve discussed previously and new ways to bring fans and artists closer together,” he added.
In terms of Spotify’s talks with the record industry about the new superfan tier, Bloombergreported over the weekend that Spotify has “secured the rights from many of its partners” to roll out the features included in ‘Music Pro’.
Bloomberg suggested over the weekend, however, that Spotify “doesn’t yet have rights from Sony“. In recent weeks, Spotify has renewed its licensing deals with Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.
News of Spotify and Universal Music Group’s licensing renewal, which includes ‘Streaming 2.0′ elements, arrived a few days before UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge confirmed in his annual memo to UMG staff that “the Streaming 2.0 era” had arrived.
The streaming 2.0 phrase was introduced at UMG’s Capital Markets Day in September, when UMG explained that ‘Streaming 2.0’ represented a new era of digital music focused on changes including:
Streaming subscription offerings becoming ‘segmented’, with pricier options for ‘superfans’; and
Subscription ARPU (average revenue per user) moving upwards across music platforms, partly as a result of the aforementioned ‘superfan’-targeted offerings, and partly as a result of future streaming price rises.
“Built on a foundation of artist-centric principles, Streaming 2.0 will represent a new age of innovation, consumer segmentation, geographic expansion, greater consumer value, and ARPU growth,” wrote Grainge in his staff memo on February 3.
Meanwhile, on Spotify’s most recent (Q4) earnings call, Daniel Ek was asked by Jessica Reif Ehrlich at BofA Securities about the UMG deal and specifically about any “benefits” Ek could provide insight on that “may impact new services” at the platform.
Ek’s response echoed one of the core fundamentals of the Streaming 2.0 proposition: user segmentation.
Credit: Sipa US/Alamy
“The next version of the music industry, I believe, is one where we’re going to tailor the experience of Spotify to all of these different subgroups. One of them we’ve been talking about is super fans.”
Daniel Ek, speaking on Spotify’s Q4 earnings call
He told analysts that the “next version of the music industry is one where we’re going to tailor the experience of Spotify” to various “different subgroups” – one of which, he explained, is super fans.
“I’m personally super excited about this one. This is a product I’ve been waiting on for quite some time as a super fan of music,” said Ek on the company’s earnings call, in regards to the company’s superfan tier.
“I’m playing around with it now and it’s really exciting. But that’s obviously one of those things that we are talking to the music industry about bringing to the table.”
Early access to concert tickets could be one the biggest selling points for Spotify’s superfan tier – as evidenced by recent demand for concerts by superstar artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Oasis, Beyoncé, and Black Sabbath.
In a statement issued at the time, a Spotify spokesperson suggested that the ticket-selling trial may or may not be expanded beyond this initial test.
“At Spotify, we routinely test new products and ideas to improve our user experience,” they said. “Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings.”
Spotify scaled back its ticketing ambitions in early 2024.
Most recently, according to Bloomberg, as part of its Music Pro plans, Spotify is “testing various ways to sell concert tickets, such as giving fans access to presales or better seats.”
Bloomberg reported that Spotify has “held preliminary talks with major promoters and ticket sellers but has yet to finalize its plans”.
Recent stats from Luminate show why superfans are becoming an increasingly important part of the music industry’s monetization strategy.
According to Luminate‘s end-of-year report for 2024, 20% of US music listeners are superfans, up from 18% in 2023.
Given that Luminate estimates 75% of the US population are music listeners, this implies that 15% of the general population are superfans.
Luminate reported that Superfans spend $113 per month on live music events on average, 66% more than the average listener. Additionally, 90% of superfans engage with artists by attending a live show, compared to 59% of overall music listeners.
They also spend, on average, 105% more on physical music purchases than listeners overall – $39 per month, compared to $19 for all fans, according to Luminate.
The report also showed that 73% of superfans buy physical merch, compared to just 26% of music listeners overall.
