Subscriptions for media are now as part-and-parcel for many people’s lives as the grocery shop, but the prices have risen substantially in the past decade.
In 2015, monster streaming services like Netflix and Spotify were already parts of people’s lives that they couldn’t do without—helped by the fact that the prices didn’t break the bank.
For the past 10 years, however, prices have risen for consumers. Inflation is often cited as a reason, but some companies also choose to start with lower prices, operating at a loss themselves, to get people onto their product in the first place, known as penetration pricing. Other companies include new add-ons to their product as their price increases, offering subscribers extra benefits as their prices rise.
Regardless, consumers are feeling the pinch: according to data from Statista, annual inflation in the USA rose to 8 percent in 2022, peaking at 9.1 percent in June of that year. And, while it dropped to 2.9 percent in 2024, it is still higher than pre-pandemic times.
Here is how much the average user pays for some of the most-popular subscriptions in 2025, compared to 2015.
Netflix
In 2015, Netflix had already cemented itself as a streaming giant—and raised the price of its standard plan to $9.99 per month.
In 2025, the cheapest monthly price for Netflix is actually lower, at $7.99—however, this option includes advertisements, whereas the 2015 option did not. For the standard option without adverts, the price jumps to $17.99 per month, according to the Netflix website.
Spotify
In 2015, Spotify users were paying $9.99 per month to access the streaming service’s full catalog of music.
Now, a premium account costs $11.99 per month for the individual plan. Anyone who is signing up for the first time gets the first four months for free, and there are other options, including student deals and a Duo account for two people sharing, at different pricing, according to Spotify’s website.
YouTube Premium
A monthly subscription to YouTube Premium will cost individual users $13.99 each month, allowing ad-free viewing, offline downloads and background listening, according to the YouTube website.
The platform is relatively new, but did exist in 2015 under the title YouTube Red—at the time, it cost $9.99 per month.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a must-have for countless people, as it offers access to the streaming service as well as special offers and quicker delivery times for online shopping.
In 2025, Amazon Prime costs $14.99 per month, or $139 per year.
In 2015, there was no monthly payment option, but streaming was included as part of the Amazon Prime package for $99 per year, or equal to $8.25 per month.
‘The New York Times’
In 2015, a subscription to The New York Times was $15 per month, not counting its special deals for students and educators.
Now, a subscription to The New York Times costs $25 per month, after a special lower-cost deal for the first six months of the subscription. Along with access to pay-walled and exclusive articles, a NYT subscription now also includes full access to the games section such as Wordle and The New York Times crossword.
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