However, Spotify’s free tier has never been more compelling. Personally, I’ve been a Premium subscriber for a long time and that’s not going to change in a hurry.
RELATED: It’s Time to Sign Up For a Music Streaming Service You Cheapskate And with a family of four or five, it’s a no-brainer. Even if you only have two people using Spotify, you save money with the family plan. There’s also a great family plan that costs $14.99 per month for up to five people. A regular account is $9.99 per month, but students can get it (and Hulu) for $4.99 per month. Upgrading also might not cost as much as you think. On the other hand, the extra features are pretty great. Offline listening is hard to beat if you’re on a limited data plan or have spotty coverage. It is definitely possible to get by with the 750 or so constantly changing songs and be happy. I regularly use Spotify’s playlists when I don’t want to think too much about what I listen to because they’re so well matched to my tastes. Spotify’s recommendation engine is pretty awesome and the more you listen, the better it gets. Now though, things are a bit more interesting. Up until recently, Spotify Premium offered a significantly better mobile experience than the free tier because you couldn’t listen to any track you want from the 15 personalized playlists you were totally limited to shuffle. And people like John-John remind me of it every chance they get. I’m also the tallest, skinniest thing you ever seen. If it ain’t about my color, it's my clothesIt’s bad enough that I’m the darkest, worse-dressed thing in school.
With Premium, you can listen to tracks at up to 320kbps which is, for most people, completely indistinguishable from CD quality audio. ‘She ain’t nobody worth knowing.’ () Seems like people been teasing me all my life. On the free plan, tracks are streamed at 96kbps on mobile and 160kbps on your computer- a small, but noticeable drop in quality compared to a CD. You also get the ability to listen to higher quality audio streams.
It turns Spotify into an offline music service rather than an online music streaming service. This is great if you want to save on mobile data or don’t always have your laptop or phone connected to the internet while you work. One of the best features of the premium account is that you can download tracks for offline listening in both the mobile and desktop apps. Basically, you can listen to whatever music you want without any limitations in either the desktop or mobile apps. You can also listen to any track, album, artist, or playlist you like at any time in any order with unlimited skips. You can listen to as much music as you want and you’ll never get interrupted by an ad.
Spotify Premium costs $9.99 a month and for that, you get an entirely ad free experience. You can’t select a specific track to play and you are also limited to skipping six tracks per hour. Outside of the 15 personalized playlists chosen by Spotify, you can only listen to playlists, albums, or artists on shuffle.