Today I’m posting about Spotify, one of my absolutely favorite “new” companies. I first heard about Spotify about eight or nine months ago. I’ve been a paying user for about 6 months now, and I absolutely love how they are transforming the music industry and the way people listen and share music.
Spotify essentially is a library of on-demand music that you can stream from your laptop or smart phone.
You can pay as little as nothing or a maximum of $9.99 a month.
1) Free Version
The free version allows you to listen to music on your laptop, but limits the number of times you can play any given song per month. Additionally, there will be advertisements. It does offer free radio on your mobile device.
2) Unlimited – $4.99/month
The unlimited version gets rid of those annoying advertisements and allows unlimited streaming from your laptop. You still get the free radio on your mobile device.
3) Premium – $9.99/month
The premium version is the plan I subscribe to and also the best deal in my opinion. You get everything the unlimited plan offers plus free streaming on your mobile device. There is also an offline mode for your playlists (more on that later).
See the full details of each plan here.
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If you don’t already know where I’m going with this, here’s the two main benefits of using Spotify:
1) It’s Legal
I have not illegally downloaded music for a long time. We can debate whether artists get paid enough from Spotify, but it is a legal application. I actually can’t stand musicians who complain about Spotify yet have their music on it. This is a whole other topic that could fit multiple blogs, but the point is that all the musicians (or people they gave the authority to make decisions for them) entered legal agreements that put their music on Spotify.
2) It can potentially save you hundreds of dollars a year
If you stop buying cds and replace it with a service like Spotify it can potentially save you a lot of money. Almost any musician you can think of is on Spotify. Even if you buy only one cd on month on average, you will still save money by instead using Spotify. You also get a lot more bang for your buck. A lot of that new music you weren’t willing to pay for you can sample and add to your library if you like it, or if it sucks, trash it with no money lost.
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Of course, there is one major drawback. The offline mode offered by the Premium plan only allows for a minimal number of songs to be set to “offline mode” at any one time. That means if you don’t have service (or don’t have good service) you won’t be able to stream music, which essentially defeats the purpose. There haven’t been many situations where I have wanted to use Spotify and have not been able to, but in some parts of the US there is bad reception and you will not be able to access all your playlists.
For me personally, though, this has not been the case. I have been able to stream in pretty much any situation I have wanted to. The exception is when I am working out in the basement of my office building. Knowing this, I make an offline playlist in advance so I have music ready to go.
What I’m curious to hear from all of you: Have you used Spotify? What do you think of it?
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Disclaimer: I did NOT get paid for this post – I genuinely believe that Spotify can save you lots of money.
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I’ve never really gotten into the whole XM or Pandora music stuff. Mainly because I have a short drive to work and I don’t think it makes sense to pay for such a small amount of time that I would be listening to it. I’m more of a movie guy when I’m on the computer so I have Netflix.
@DebtnTaxes I hear you. I am able to listen to music sometimes at work (sometimes for hours on end) so I’ve really appreciated having Spotify. Also gives me opportunity to discover new music very easily. I have not used Netflix but I have considered it…cable and free dvds from the library have me covered for now.