The monthly fee will move from €10.99 to €11.99 ($14.05), covering South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.

The change comes less than two years after the company’s last increase. For Spotify, this is part of its goal to expand profitability and drive its initiative towards one billion global users. 

The Swedish streaming giant currently counts 696 million monthly active users and 276 million paying subscribers.

Alex Norström, co-president and chief business officer, told the Financial Times: “Price increases and price adjustments and so on, that’s part of our business toolbox and we’ll do it when it makes sense.”

Over the past year, Spotify has tightened operations, cutting costs through layoffs and scaling back on expensive podcast deals. Those decisions, alongside subscription growth, helped the company deliver its first annual profit in 2024 and record a 31.5% gross margin in the second quarter of 2025. Free cash flow now stands at €700 million, a turnaround after years of losses.

Alongside the price rise, Spotify is betting heavily on product innovation. Recent features include AI-powered playlist customisation, a virtual DJ tool, and audiobook integration. These are designed not just to improve listening but also to make users less likely to cancel, even when prices climb.

In Africa, Premium subscriptions will now cost R69.99 per month in South Africa, roughly on par with rivals Apple Music and YouTube Music. Analysts say this alignment in pricing shows Spotify’s intent to defend its market share, especially in mobile-first regions where streaming adoption is still rising quickly.

Spotify already controls about 65% of the global music streaming market and 45% of paid subscriptions outside China and Russia, according to Luminate. Analysts believe the new features and improved personalisation will help absorb the impact of higher costs for subscribers, ensuring Spotify maintains its lead as the dominant global music platform.

A class action suit led by Uche Diala, joined by 961 fellow subscribers, sought to challenge MultiChoice Nigeria over what they called arbitrary and exploitative subscription hikes in November 2023 and May 2024.

Their demands?

A rollback of the increases, and a shift to a pay-as-you-view model—similar to what MultiChoice offers in other countries like South Africa.

But their legal challenge hit a wall.

MultiChoice fired back with a preliminary objection, insisting that pricing decisions were not within the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal’s (CCPT) jurisdiction.

According to their lawyers, the claimants had also jumped the gun by filing as a class action without first securing the tribunal’s leave.

Justice Thomas Okosun, who chaired the three-member panel, agreed. He declared that pricing and tariff regulation lie squarely under the President’s authority, as outlined by the Price Control Act—not within the tribunal’s reach.

“The issue of price regulation is a matter that falls within the exclusive purview of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Justice Okosun emphasized.

Although the tribunal conceded it has jurisdiction in some regulatory disputes under the FCCPC Act, it made clear this does not extend to blanket price control—unless market dominance abuse is proven, which the claimants failed to do.

While the tribunal noted that the claimants had a common cause, it nonetheless upheld MultiChoice’s objection and dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction.

“This suit is accordingly struck out for want of jurisdiction,” the panel ruled, echoing a precedent set just weeks earlier.

Back on May 8, the Federal High Court in Abuja had similarly sided with MultiChoice, ruling that the FCCPC had no legal authority to fix or freeze pay-TV subscription rates.

For Nigerian subscribers seeking relief from spiraling prices, that’s now two strikes in court—with no clear path to a third.

A new proposal is on the table, telecom users whose lines go inactive will have a full year to retrieve their unspent airtime—so long as they can prove the line belongs to them.

At a recent forum of telecom stakeholders, the Commission dropped what could become a game-changer for millions of prepaid subscribers. This is about drawing a line between what’s fair and what’s convenient—for both customers and mobile operators.

Dr Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman of NCC, represented by Rimini Makama, Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, laid it out, stating that the days of networks quietly reclaiming your unused balance may be coming to an end.

“As the telecommunications industry continues to evolve, we must address emerging issues, including the fate of prepaid balances on inactive lines,” Maida said.

If a line is inactive for 12 months, operators must deactivate it. But instead of swallowing the remaining airtime, they’ll be required to notify the user and offer a way to reclaim it. No refund in cash, but redemption through voice bundles, data, or value-added services. The key condition? Prove it’s your line.

The new draft framework doesn’t leave much wiggle room for the operators. NCC’s Head of Legal and Regulatory Services, Mrs Chizua Whyte, put it in clear terms: “It also prohibits monetisation of unclaimed airtime, instead mandates service-based redemptions such as data or voice bundles.”

She went further, spelling out expectations. Operators will be required to audit churned accounts, report unclaimed balances, and launch public awareness campaigns. They have 90 days to fall in line once the guidelines are formalised. For the Commission, audits won’t drag—10 days max.

Whyte added, “This draft seeks to ensure that subscribers maintain rightful access to their purchased credits while operators gain clarity in their responsibilities.”

From the tone of the forum, the NCC is serious about this. The time of ghost airtime balances vanishing into your revenue books may be over. The Commission wants user rights to be taken seriously and service, not profit, comes first.

Countries like the United States, India, and members of the European Union have already outlawed the silent vanishing act of prepaid balances. Now Nigeria is catching up—and pushing even further by demanding transparency, accountability, and user education.

This is a reset because for too long, the question of what happens to airtime on long-dead SIMs has always been unanswered. Now, at least, we’re closer to one. 

Hopefully, this new framework will see the light of day without objections from operators; but for once, the regulator seems ready to take the side of the ordinary Nigerian.

And about time, too.