The rumours were right: Meta is launching premium subscriptions for Facebook and Instagram so that people can pay to remove advertisements from the services.
However, this isn’t a global thing: it’s just for the European Union, European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, as a response to the latest regulations in Europe.
“Depending on where you purchase it will cost €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android,” announced Meta in a blog post.
For now, that one fee will cover “all linked Facebook and Instagram accounts in a user’s Accounts Center”, but from the start of March 2024 an additional fee of €6 / €8 a month will be charged for each additional account.
“The option for people to purchase a subscription for no ads balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice and allowing Meta to continue serving all people in the EU, EEA and Switzerland,” said Meta.
How big an impact will this have on marketers, including those in the music industry? Well, that clearly depends on how popular the new subscriptions are – and, indeed, how energetically (or not) Meta promotes them.
Separately, but as part of these changes, Meta is going to ‘pause’ (in the Wall Street Journal’s words) showing ads to all users under the age of 18 in these European markets.
Meta said it will evaluate the new EU laws before deciding whether to unpause and start showing ads to under-18s again in the coming months.
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