It is not uncommon for companies to charge different amounts for subscriptions across markets. However, it is rare for us to have a consolidated list of what these differing costs look like. Mathias Singer, an expatriate who moved from Denmark to Malaysia noted the massive difference in how much he was being charged by music streaming service Spotify for a premium account and set out to catalogue just how much each country is paying.
Singer theorises that the difference in pricing could be due to differences in the number of songs available to that region; although this cannot be verified as Spotify does not make that information publicly available. What is available is the interactive map that he devised to highlight the distribution across all of Spotify’s markets.
Notably, Malaysia, Argentina, and the Phillippines have the greatest value to cost ratio. Malaysians only pay US$4.59 after conversion for monthly access to the premium service (about half what Americans are paying). On the other end of the spectrum, Denmark pays US$18.46 and the United Kingdom some US$16.70 for the same thing. He also provides a price to GDP comparison just in case you’re into that sort of thing.
Those interested in taking a look can find the map here.
