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Key Takeaways

  • Downloading music on Spotify is surprisingly simple, and allows you to listen to content offline in order to save your mobile data.
  • Spotify Premium users can download music (and/or podcasts) on both the mobile and desktop apps, but not on the web player.
  • Premium users can download up to 10,000 songs on five different devices, while free users can only download podcasts and not enable Offline Mode.

It's not only possible, but surprisingly simple, to download Spotify songs to listen to offline. And Spotify's Offline Mode means you can ensure you're only accessing downloaded content, preventing you from wasting your mobile data.

How to Download Spotify Songs to Listen Offline

You can download music (and podcasts) from Spotify on both the mobile and desktop apps (but not the Spotify Web Player). Here's how...

How to Download Music on Spotify on Your Mobile

Open the Spotify app on your phone, and find the song, album, or playlist you want to download for offline listening.

To download an individual song, you'll need to add it to a playlist first. The simplest way is to add it to your Liked Songs by clicking the + symbol while playing a song. Or you can create a Spotify playlist and add songs to it manually.

To download an album or playlist, search for the album or playlist you want to listen to offline, click on it, then look for the Download button (a down arrow within a circle). This is located above the song listings, to the left of the Play button.

Simply press that button, and the album or playlist will be downloaded to your device for you to listen to offline.

How to Download Music on Spotify on Your Desktop

  1. Open the Spotify app on your computer, and make sure you're logged in.
  2. Navigate to the album or playlist you want to download, and click the Download button (the down arrow located on the same line as the Play button).
A Spotify playlist ready to be downloaded

Unlike songs, you can download individual podcasts for offline listening. So, search for the podcast you want to listen to and select it to bring up the list of episodes. You'll see the Download button in the lower-left corner of each episode. Simply click it to download that episode and listen to your favorite podcast.

How to Find Everything You Have Downloaded on Spotify

Once you have downloaded some content, you need to know where to find it. Here's how...

  1. Open the Spotify app on your device and click Your Library.
  2. Scroll through the options until you find Downloaded.
  3. Click on that to reveal a full list of everything you have downloaded on Spotify.

If you have downloaded a lot of content, you can sort your Downloaded content in a number of ways to help you find what you're looking for.

By default, your downloaded content is sorted by most recently accessed. But if you click Recents, you can sort by Recently Added, Alphabetical, or Creator.

Regardless of the device you're using, the album, playlist, or podcast you have downloaded will now be available to listen to offline. Whether you choose to go offline or are forced offline.

Why You Should Download Music on Spotify

Now you know how to download music on Spotify, let's tackle why you should do so.

In a nutshell, downloading content means that it will be available to listen to offline. So, whether you want to disconnect from the internet intentionally (to save your mobile data) or are forced offline (due to a lack of coverage or an outage) having some downloaded content (music and/or podcasts) to listen to is a sensible idea.

After all, unless you're on Spotify's free plan, and therefore have limited playback options anyway, you're paying for the service. So, having access to the content you want to listen, regardless of whether you're online or not, is important.

How (and Why) to Enable Spotify's Offline Mode

Once you have downloaded some content to listen to offline, you can enable Spotify's Offline Mode. Enabling Offline Mode means that when you're offline, you'll only be able to play the music and/or podcasts you have downloaded. This is another option only available to Spotify Premium subscribers.

To enable Spotify's Offline Mode:

  1. Open the Spotify app on your mobile device, and log in.
  2. Click on your profile in the top left-hand corner, then click Settings and Privacy.
  3. Scroll down until you see Offline Mode under the Playback heading.
  4. Click the switch on the right to either enable or disable it (depending on its current position).

As stated above, Spotify's Offline Mode limits you to listening to the content you have downloaded. This ensures that you don't use mobile data or even your Wi-Fi to stream anything when you don't want to do so. Which is important if you're on a limited data plan or have another reason for not wanting to access the internet for a period of time.

What You Need to Know About Listening to Spotify Offline

Spotify Premium users like myself can download up to 10,000 songs each on five different devices, for a total of 50,000 songs. Which, with an estimate of three minutes/song (which is likely on the low side), would give you 2500 hours of music to listen to offline.

For context, that's just over 104 days of listening nonstop. And if you're without an internet connection for that long, you have bigger issues to tackle than your song collection.

Anyone using Spotify's free plan CAN download podcasts to listen to offline, but CANNOT download music. Free users can also not enable Offline Mode. While not necessarily a problem, it means there's a chance of accidentally streaming content you haven't downloaded.

The Spotify app needs to connect to the internet at least once every 30 days. This means that you cannot remain in Offline Mode and only listen to your downloads in perpetuity. So, if you ever cancel your Spotify Premium subscription and switch to using the streaming service for free, you'll eventually lose access to your downloads.

Spotify is a fantastic streaming service, and the ability for Premium users to download content to listen to offline is a Godsend. And given how easy it is to download albums, playlists, and individual episodes of podcasts, there's really no reason not to give it a go.