Spotify adds new, cheaper Basic plan without the audiobooks

Spotify on Friday announced that it’s adding a new Basic tier to its streaming music plans that costs $11 per month and that removes the monthly audiobook listening time.

The new Spotify Basic plan, which is available only to U.S. subscribers at the moment, strips away access to the 15 hours a month of audiobooks and gives subscribers access to just music and podcasts, which users uninterested in audiobooks might appreciate.

Spotify earlier in June announced its second price increase in less than a year that saw the price of its Premium plan go up from $11 to $12 per month, its Duo plan go from $15 to $17 per month, and its Family plan go from $17 to $20 a month. It was reported by Bloomberg back in April that the price hike was to help offset the cost of adding audiobooks to its roster, a move that has made it the second largest provider of audiobooks next to Audible. This new Basic plan is a throwback to the $11-per-month Premium plan, sans audiobooks.

On the flipside, in March Spotify announced a new $10-per-month Audiobooks Access plan that avid readers can opt for if audiobooks are all they want. The plan includes 15 hours of audiobook listening a month, but is not completely devoid of music — it comes with access to Spotify’s ad-supported music service, too.

It’s likely (we can only hope) that this won’t be the last time this year that Spotify announces new plans or pricing. The Sweden-based music streamer keeps toying with the idea of adding a “HiFi” plan, which was teased earlier this month as reports that a new $5-per-month hi-res audio “add-on” was inbound for the end of the year.