Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co. both raised prices of their U.S. streaming services this year, and now Apple Inc. is following suit.
The smartphone giant is raising prices on a number of its consumer-facing services including Apple TV+, according to new pricing data on the company’s website. 9to5 Mac reported on the price changes earlier Monday.
Apple+ now costs $6.99 a month after a free weekly trial, up from $4.99 a month previously. Apple Music will cost $10.99 a month for an individual plan, up from $9.99 a month before, and cost $16.99 a month for a family plan, up from $14.99 previously.
Shares of Apple
AAPL,
were up 0.8% in afternoon trading Monday, while shares of rival Spotify Technology SA
SPOT,
rallied sharply around midday and were recently ahead more than 6%. Spotify charges $9.99 for an individual plan and $15.99 for a family plan.
Apple is also hiking the price of Apple One, a bundle that includes both the Apple Music and Apple TV+ services. An individual Apple One monthly membership will go for $16.95, up from $14.95, while a family membership will cost $22.95, up from $19.95 previously. Those two tiers also include access to the Apple Arcade gaming service and iCloud+ storage, neither of which are seeing price changes individually.
A premier Apple One package, which also includes Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+, will see its monthly price jump to $32.95 from $29.95.
“We introduced Apple TV+ at a very low price because we started with just a few shows and movies,” an Apple spokesperson told MarketWatch. “Three years later, Apple TV+ is home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers.”
The spokesperson also noted that the Apple Music price increase means that “artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music.”
After years of the so-called streaming wars in online video, companies seem to be taking more rational approaches to their pricing strategies instead of focusing on absolute user growth. Netflix
NFLX,
announced price increases for the U.S. market back in January, while Disney
DIS,
discussed various price hikes for Disney+ and Hulu in August.
