It goes without saying that Spotify is pretty much the GOAT when it comes to music streaming services. It has more than 100 million songs, 6 million podcasts, and 350,000 audiobooks. It’s music discovery and innovative special features maintains it cache as one of the most popular options out there, beating out both Apple Music and Amazon Music.
Spotify can be had for free (with ads), but has several tiers of Premium membership which deliver ad-free listening for a price. An individual membership is available for $12 each month, meanwhile you can snag a 2-person Spotify Premium Duo account for $17 monthly, or a Spotify Premium Student account for $6 each month. Families can also benefit from the Spotify Premium Family account for just $20 per month.
We’ve got all the details for you on what’s included in a Spotify Premium subscription, how the free tier operates, and even how to get a deal. Let’s take a look.
Spotify plans explained
Spotify Free
With Spotify Free, you can listen to anything you want in the mobile, web, or desktop Spotify app, as well as on smart TVs and compatible game consoles, as long as you’re willing to put up with ads. Core search and play features are available, including the ability to listen to specific tracks on demand, replay recent albums, subscribe to podcasts, and more. While the free service is more than enough for casual listeners, more regular listeners may get annoyed with the constant ads, limited shuffles, and slightly lower sound quality.
Spotify Premium: Individual — $12 per month
Those willing to part with a little cash can access a host of top-tier features, including more than 100 million ad-free tracks, plus the ability to download your music directly to a device and get higher streaming quality. As a Spotify Premium user, you can save tracks and podcasts for offline listening, which is ideal for travelers and people using Spotify during their commute. You also get a month for free when you subscribe for the first time.
While Spotify Premium isn’t officially available from Spotify on a per-year basis, you can however buy one for $99 through Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop. Just go to one of these sites and search for “Spotify annual” or something similar and you’ll find it easily.
Spotify Premium: Duo — $17 per month
With Spotify Duo, you can share your Spotify subscription with a friend, family member, or partner “under one roof.” Both users get their own Spotify dashboards, along with features such as collaborative playlists that you and a bunch of friends can add to and edit, plus Blend, a playlist that’s a combination of collaborative playlists and Spotify’s personalization that automatically “blends” together each user’s (up to 10) musical tastes in a shareable playlist. Cost-wise, it’s basically two accounts for $8.50 per month each, with cute sharing features for couples and best friends.
Spotify Premium: Student — $6 per month
If you’re a student (you need a valid student email address), you can get a Spotify Premium subscription called Student for a discount price. It also comes with an ad-based Hulu subscription. Just make sure you re-register as a student after a year, or Spotify will strip you of the Hulu membership and start charging you the full Premium membership price.
Spotify Basic Family — $17 per month
While this premium tier is no longer available for new subscribers (and if you’re an existing subscriber with it, canceling it or changing tiers will remove the option for you, too), Spotify Basic Family gives you six people on one account, although members can leave the family plan at any time and keep their account. This makes it easy if you have a child swapping from a family plan over to a Student account when they leave for college. It also comes with a host of parental control options and Spotify Kids, a separate app aimed at children. Spotify Kids has child-friendly songs, so you don’t have to worry about any of your kids accidentally streaming explicit music. You can also make playlists for the kids so they only listen to what you allow. The one downside of this plan is that it does not include the 15-hours of audiobook listening that a Premium Individual, Premium Duo, and Premium Family accounts include. You also get the full features of the service, including the aforementioned Blend and collaborative playlists. Again, volume is everything.
Spotify Premium: Family — $20 per month
The big difference between the Spotify Basic Family, and Spotify Premium Family accounts is the addition of audiobook hours. With the Premium Family account the plan manager gets access to 15 hours of audiobook listening each month.
Spotify Audiobooks Access — $10 per month
If you’re only looking for a place to listen to audiobooks, then Spotify Audiobooks Access is the tier you’ll want to check out. This option delivers access the audiobook library, and gives you 15 hours of listening each month. It’s a bit cheaper than buying your audiobooks, making it a great way to listen to a new release before you decide if you want to keep it. While you do have access to to music and podcasts available on Spotify, they’ll be ad-supported. If you’re looking for music and audiobooks, we suggest snagging the Spotify Premium Individual membership since it includes audiobooks and ad-free music and podcasts.
How Spotify compares to the competition
If you’re torn between Spotify and a rival, chances are it is either Apple Music or YouTube Music. YouTube Music and Apple Music both come in at $11 each month, making them a dollar cheaper than Spotify. They all tout a similar set of features, but Spotify comes out on top — in our opinion, at least. Why? Because it has the best interface, an endless catalog of on-demand content, fantastic curated playlists, and a free tier (namely, Spotify Free) that’s better than YouTube Music’s free plan, for those who don’t want — or aren’t in the position — to enter into a commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it worth paying for Spotify Premium?
While Spotify raised its plan prices (again) midway through 2024, popular consensus is that it’s still worth paying the $12 a month for Spotify Premium. After all, Spotify Premium gives you ad-free access to 100 million songs, 6 million podcasts, and half a million audiobooks, to say nothing of the curated playlists and other features the streamer includes.
How to get Spotify for cheap or free?
To get Spotify for cheap, the first thing to do is to see whether any of your other memberships or subscriptions throw in free trials of Spotify. They come and go, but if you’ve bought a new device, signed up for a new mobile or streaming service, or have a membership with any major U.S. retailers like Walmart or Amazon, they often offer several months free for new members.
