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When you think about streaming music, it’s quite likely that Spotify is the first name that comes to mind. Spotify has a massive library, a great music recommendation algorithm, and several useful features worth paying for. Spotify Premium is the paid version of the world’s most popular music streaming service. If you can’t afford it, or don’t want to pay for Spotify, you can still use its free tier. Free Spotify has some annoying limitations, though, such as a limited number of song skips and plenty of ads, and it doesn’t let you see time-synced lyrics, either. You also miss out on the highest quality audio and lose the ability to download music for offline listening. Although you can block Spotify ads on some platforms, the rest are dealbreakers for a lot of people.
How much is Spotify Premium?
Spotify Premium has four paid plans. If you’re buying it for yourself, you’ll want Premium Individual, which costs $10.99 per month. For those who want to share music with one other person in their household, Premium Duo at $14.99 per month is the best plan. For families or larger groups who want Spotify Premium, there’s the Premium Family plan at $16.99 per month. This plan allows up to six people to sign up for one sub, but all of them should be living at the same address.
If you’re a student attending an accredited higher education institution, you can sign up for the Premium Student plan, which costs $5.99/month. This plan also lets you access Hulu (with ads).
How to get discounts on Spotify Premium
The best way to save on Spotify Premium is to sign up for an annual plan using a gift card. You can get these gift cards from Amazon or Best Buy at $99 for an annual plan. If you’re sure you’ll use Spotify all year, then you end up saving $33 when compared to paying month-to-month.
Of course, you can also take advantage of Spotify Premium’s free trials. The duration of these free trials keeps changing over time, but one thing remains the same—it only works if you’ve never used Spotify Premium before. You’re free to create a fresh account and keep signing up for free trials for as long as you can get away with it, but remember that you’ll lose your listening history and playlists each time you create a new account. At the time of writing, Spotify was offering a three-month free trial on its website. You may also periodically come across promotions that offer longer free trials. At the time of publication, Spotify and Tinder had a collaboration to let you sign up for four months of Premium for free. PayPal also offers a three-month Spotify Premium free trial.
Your employer may also offer Spotify Premium for free. (Starbucks is one of these employers.)
You can sign up for Spotify Premium from another region that has lower pricing. For example, Spotify Premium in India starts from as little as INR 7 per day ($0.08); the most affordable monthly plan costs INR 119 per month ($1.43). You’ll have to use a VPN to periodically sign in from the region you choose. Know, however, that streaming deals vary by region so some artists available on Spotify USA may be missing when you sign up from other regions.
