If you’ve tried Spotify’s free plan and are thinking about upgrading to Premium, there are a few factors to consider before moving to a paid plan. While Spotify Premium is great, it’s not for everyone.
Let’s look at whether you should spend the cash on Spotify Premium.
Spotify Free vs. Premium: A Summary
See our full discussion on what you get with Spotify’s free plan vs. Spotify Premium if you need all the details. In short, while both give you full access to Spotify’s library, there are a few key differences to know about.
The biggest change is that Spotify Premium doesn’t have any ads that interrupt your listening experience. Premium also lets you turn off shuffle mode on mobile, while free users are forced to use shuffle except on “select playlists.” Listening on desktop doesn’t have this restriction.
The two other major perks of Premium are the ability to download music for offline listening, and enabling high-quality streaming. While a nice package of benefits, are they worth the price?
How Much Does Spotify Premium Cost?
Before we can discuss the value of Spotify Premium, we have to see how much it costs. Like many services nowadays, you can subscribe to Spotify through several different plans.
If you’re going it alone, Spotify Premium costs $10.99/month. Those who can verify they are students pay $5.99/month instead, for a solo plan.
Meanwhile, Spotify Premium Duo costs $14.99/month and gives two people who live at the same address their own Premium accounts. And for maximum value, Spotify Premium Family lets you have up to six accounts join Premium for $16.99/month total. Like the Duo plan, everyone must reside at the same place.
We’ve gone into more detail about each Spotify subscription, if you’re interested.
Is Spotify Premium Worth It?
If you use Spotify with any frequency during the month, it’s hard to argue against Spotify Premium being a great investment. For the price of what Amazon or iTunes charges for one digital album, you get high-quality streaming, the ability to save music to your phone, and no ads. Depending on your mobile plan, the offline listening could pay for itself in data charges.
Breaking it down into a calculation: if you listen to Spotify for an hour per day in a month, you're paying about 37 cents per hour of music. That's about the cheapest entertainment you can find, and most people listen for more than an hour per day. Think about the value of your time spent listening to ads, as well. $11 over the course of a month more than covers the hour or two of ads you'd have to deal with.
If you have enough people in your home to do a Duo or Family plan, it becomes an even more attractive deal. Even with only two or three people, paying $6-$8 a month each is a great deal for unlimited music streaming. We’ve considered more about the value of Spotify Premium Family.
Almost everyone nowadays gets their music entirely from streaming, which is much more convenient than juggling a large MP3 collection. Being able to check out an album in its entirety without wasting money if you don’t like it, and building a library of your favorites in Spotify, are well worth the cost. These are both more convenient with Premium.
However, there are some situations in which joining Spotify Premium doesn’t make sense. Let’s review those.
If You Rarely Use Spotify
If you don’t often use Spotify—perhaps you have your own music collection—you likely don’t care about the ads or limited mobile access. For those who use Spotify every once in a while to check out a new artist, but don’t rely on it for all their music, Premium isn’t worth the cost.
If You Use Another Music Streaming Service
If you already subscribe to another music streaming service, Spotify likely won’t pull you away from it. Most music streaming services are similar these days, so the effort of moving your library to Spotify isn’t worth the minor changes.
For more info, we’ve compared Spotify to Apple Music and YouTube Music if you’re thinking of making the switch.
If You Demand Hi-Fi Audio
One of Spotify’s biggest omissions is the lack of a Hi-Fi plan. Apple Music includes lossless audio for certain music, and competitors like Tidal boast about having the highest quality streaming possible. Spotify Premium’s high quality is enough for most people, but audiophiles should look elsewhere.
Spotify has discussed plans around this, but as of this writing, Spotify’s Hi-Fi tier has been postponed indefinitely.
If You Want to Join With Those Outside Your Home
Spotify’s Duo and Family plans are a great way to save money by pooling your subscription, but the company doesn’t want you to sign up for these with anyone outside your home. It enacts various measures to make sure you’re only creating a group plan for people who live with you.
In contrast, you can make an Apple Family Sharing group to give access to your Apple Music Family plan to a total of six people, no matter their location (within your country). And if everyone is a big user of the company’s services, joining Apple One provides even more value.
How to Upgrade to Spotify Premium
Ready to switch to a Premium account? Head to the Spotify Premium page, sign into your account, and follow the steps to enter your payment information. You’ll instantly be able to enjoy Premium benefits, and can cancel anytime.
While you can sign up for Spotify Premium using the mobile apps, we don’t recommend doing this. Like many apps, Spotify charges more to sign up on Android or iPhone to cover the transaction fees that mobile app stores charge. Save yourself a few dollars a month and sign up on the web—the experience on your phone will be the same.
Spotify Premium Is a Great Deal
In short, the decision to upgrade comes down to whether Spotify is your main method for listening to music. If it is, then for the price of a digital album per month, you can enjoy everything you want with no limits. If it’s not, then you likely won’t appreciate the benefits enough.
The best way to know for sure is to try. Since Spotify offers a one-month trial of Premium, it’s worth signing up for that. If you don’t appreciate the benefits after 30 days, you’ll know Spotify isn’t worth it for you.