Spotify has suspended its premium service in Russia
After closing its office in Moscow in protest of the invasion of Ukraine, Spotify has now suspended its premium service in Russia. No more subscriptions will be sold and Spotify isn’t selling advertising in the country anymore. This will probably result in the loss of 1.5 million subscribers. Then again, Russia doesn’t account for more than 1% of Spotify’s revenue.
The freemium level is still available because (and I agree with this) Spotify believes that this gives everyday Russians a window to the outside world (via podcasts, mostly) away from the brutal censorship and insane propaganda in the country.
To be honest, though, Spotify had no choice but to suspend its premium service given that all western credit cards will no longer work in Russia.
On another note, Spotify claims that the Joel Rogan controversy hasn’t had much of an impact on subscriptions in the rest of the world.
And now, this (via Sean):
