Apple may be planning a premium upgrade for its best subscription service

Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reports that Spotify is still working on a pricier version of its streaming music subscription, and Apple may not be too far behind it.

Here’s what Lucas Shaw says is coming from Spotify in the months ahead:

Spotify is developing a more-expensive version of its service that will offer higher-quality audio, concert tickets and tools that let subscribers edit songs. The company is calling it Music Pro (at least for now) and aims to roll out the package later this year, priced about $6 a month more than its current subscriptions.

The idea of a roughly $17/month plan is familiar to Spotify followers. The company has been planning to catch up with Apple Music and offer a so-called Hi-Fi tier with higher resolution audio for years now.

Meanwhile, Apple Music offers lossless audio in the standard Apple Music tier.

For that reason, Spotify will probably need to throw in some additional features if it wants to monetize higher-resolution audio.

Selling concert tickets through a streaming music service has always been a good idea and an untapped opportunity, but the online ticket sales business is a disaster for consumers.

The ability to edit songs in some capacity is interesting. This is what Lucas Shaw reports in those departments:

Music Pro will include several different remixing tools that let users speed up or mash up songs as though they were a DJ. Spotify has also been talking to concert promoters and ticket sellers about securing access to allotments of tickets so that it can give customers access to a presale or better seats.

So what about Apple? As mentioned, Apple Music has long offered higher resolution audio at no extra cost. The subscription music service has only ever seen one price increase, from $9.99/month to $10.99/month in 2022. But Shaw adds that Apple (and Amazon) are similarly investigating ways to charge more for higher tiers of their respective streaming services.

Apple and Amazon have also talked about more-expensive tiers for their apps, though their plans are more nascent and may not come to fruition. 

So nothing very concrete, but notable if only because it would be a departure from Apple’s current strategy. Apple has added features like live lyrics, Dolby Atmos, and lossless audio to the one-and-only version of Apple Music. Charging more for additional features would be a change, and depending on what features Apple could pull together, it may be worth paying for.

If Apple could get the rights to music stems for popular songs, that could go along way with apps like GarageBand and Logic. In fact, Apple has provided this sort of experience in creative classes in its retail stores, but not in a form that you can take home.