Is Apple Music and Deezer next to follow Spotify in raising its rates in France?

Spotify is not pleased with the French streaming tax, which is meant to support up-and-coming artists.

As part of their fight against the new French streaming levy, which also applies to competitors like Deezer, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, Spotify is claiming that its French users will soon pay the highest streaming pricing in the entire EU. The tax, which went into force in January, is intended to support upcoming artists as well as the French music industry in general.

The only top music streaming service that has announced a price increase currently is Spotify, and it is still unknown how much the increase would cost. However, based on the current tone of its messages, it doesn’t seem realistic that we’re discussing cents. The new 1.2% levy, or almost 13 cents on Spotify’s monthly fee of €11.99, is described in a blog post by the company as “a massive amount” that it “cannot absorb.”

Spotify has already reduced the amount of money it contributes to national artist marketing campaigns and ceased supporting the French music festivals that it was sponsoring.The overall annual revenue from all streamers is anticipated to be around €15 million / $16 million; Spotify, being the market leader in France, will pay more than its competitors.

It’s war, streamers vs. France.

If you were a cynic, you may question whether the motivation for this is genuinely financial. Ultimately, the charge represents a small portion of the money that Spotify’s struggling podcasting section pays celebrities like Joe Rogan, which is one of the reasons the company is losing money even as its subscriber base and revenue are increasing. Furthermore, it is insignificant in comparison to the earnings that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek received over the previous 12 months from the sale of shares.

The expected €15 million in revenue is only somewhat more than the €14 million that all streamers, with the exception of Amazon, voluntarily pledged to donate annually to the Centre National de la Musique, the organization that the fee would help support. However, people are free to cease volunteering at any time if they no longer feel like doing so.

If Spotify increases its pricing above the levy, as appears likely, in an attempt to incite consumer animosity towards the French government, other streamers might follow suit. Jeronimo Folgueira, the CEO of Deezer, described the levy as the worst case out of all the ones that might have happened, and we’ve seen that there may be a domino effect with streaming in other countries. Folgueira had previously hinted that Deezer would distribute the additional expenses “along the value chain.”

It doesn’t seem possible that a slight price increase would inspire a French Revolution cover song or that Spotify could raise its rates to the point where it incites enough resentment against the French government without putting itself in danger. However, this might be a longer game being played. In the event that pricing increases in France are met with minimal customer attrition, this will strongly imply that price increases for streaming services may occur in other regions as well.

Read More: What Is Spotify Web Player, And How Do I Use It?

---