Spotify is on of the the most popular music streaming service in the world and getting the right Spotify plan can be a trick for some. A head of front of Apple Music and Tidal — Spotify has more than 35 million songs, podcasts and audiobooks, has led to a whole new wave of how people consume media.
The biggest downside to this service is that its very hard to get it in most parts of the world, and has recently launched to some parts of Africa.
Here’s everything you need to know about Spotify plans. There are 5 Spotify plans namely;
- Spotify Free
- Spotify Premium
- Spotify Premium Family
- Spotify Premium Duo
- Spotify Premium for Students
Spotify Free
Not everything is free, even what Spotify terms as free comes with come terms and conditions. The free Spotify plan comes with limited features and experience within the app. The two biggest drawbacks of the free plan are that you can only listen in Shuffle mode, and that you’ll hear advertisements every couple of tracks. You can still access playlists, search for new music and listen to Spotify’s Radio stations. You will also be limited when it comes to skipping on this free Spotify plan. You can skip six tracks per hour, every hour. Ration them out. If you find yourself skipping six tracks in a row, perhaps the free model is not for you and its worth upgrading to premium.
Spotify Plan Free Vs Premium
| Spotify Free | Spotify Premium* | |
| Access to over 35 million songs | YES | YES |
| Access to podcasts and audiobooks | YES | YES |
| Travel Abroad with your music | 14 days max | YES |
| On-demand mobile access | Available on select playlists | YES |
| Ads | YES | NO |
| Listen without Internet | NO | YES |
| Paid | NO | YES |
*This includes trials, premium for family, premium for students, bundles and premium plans with other companies.
Spotify Premium
This is the company’s most popular paid plan, its the go-to subscription plan for most music fans. Depending on location and yous signed up for it, it will cost about £9.99/$9.99 a month, you can have unlimited access to Spotify Plan for Premium. That means no more ads, on-demand tracks, the ability to download music to play offline and the option to listen to the Spotify music library abroad.
For frequent travelers they can create playlists and share music, or likes to listen to albums from start to finish, using Spotify Premium. You can get a 1-month free trial of Premium to test the service and see if it works for you before paying the full 10 bucks.
If you love this premium service but the subscription fees are on the high-side, there are alternatives.
Spotify Plan for Premium Family
This Spotify Plan is Premium for a Family for up to six family members living together. You get six Premium accounts for one price, and it is hugely popular with both families and those living in shared housing. Each member of the family has their own individual Premium account, so there’s no need to share login details. Basically, everyone in the family gets all of the benefits on a personal Spotify Premium account for a total price of $14.99.
If you live in a house with four other people, you could pay just $3.75 each for your own Spotify plan for Premium accounts. You can ask for much fairer than that. There are parental controls that give you the option to enable or disable explicit content for members of your family.
But there is catch, Spotify plan for Family is widely abused, with groups of friends using one address to sign up and split the cost of Spotify Family despite not living together. Spotify knows this, and in September 2019 it was announced that it would now start requiring GPS data from users to prove that they do, indeed, live at the same address.
Spotify Premium Duo
The Premium Duo Spotify plan is for cohabiting couples who can have their own Spotify Premium accounts for just €12.49 per month in Europe, bringing your price down to €6.25 per month each. There are also some romantic sharing features added, such as Duo Mix, which will create a playlist automatically based on the music listened to by the two people in the contract.
The downside is that this Spotify plan is also further limited to further geographical restrictions. Premium Duo initially rolled out in Colombia, Chile, Denmark, Ireland and Poland first, but it will come to more markets soon. We expect that Duo will be subject to the same GPS data requirements as the Family plan to reduce the number of people scheming the system.
Spotify Premium for Students
As the name implies, this Spotify plan is designed for students only. It basically gives students access to Spotify Premium for 50 percent off for a whole year, bringing the month down to a fiver. You can renew your Premium for Students subscription every 12 months, but only up to a maximum of three times. This will cover a typical undergraduate degree in most places around the world, for example. You’ll also get access to as based TV streaming services like Hulu’s ad-supported plan and Showtime for no extra cost.
As expected there is catch, to ensure you are not trying to fraud the system, you’ll have to verify your student status through a third-party service before you can qualify for the discounted price and it’s pretty easy to switch to Premium for Students if you are already a Premium subscriber. It’s worth noting that you cannot combine this student plan with another discounted subscription, such as Premium for Family.
Which Spotify plan do you think is right for you? Share your experience in the comments section below.
