A Spotify free and premium hybrid. It sits somewhere between the two with a great price tag. If you don’t want to pay out for the premium version but also wish you could have some features that the free plan just can’t offer – this may be for you!
What is Spotify Plus?
Spotify have found another gap in the market. It seems people who aren’t able to pay for the premium version of their app still want more than the free version can offer. They have thought up the idea of Spotify Plus, which would be a fraction of the cost of a normal subscription, but would also contain some best loved features.
For $0.99 rather than the premium cost of $9.99, users would still have adverts featured in between their song choices. This seems fair, they need to generate the money from somewhere, and removing the adverts loses the incentive for those who pay for premium.
What are the differences?
Let’s break this down into these 3 tiers. There have been rumours that Spotify could include more pricing points along the way but nothing has been confirmed yet.
Free
Within Spotify’s free plan, you can listen to any playlist or music you like, but it must be via the shuffle mode. You have the ability to access all content within the app, but you can’t pick and choose each song, it will only allow you to change via the shuffle option. If you’ve listened to a certain song one too many times, or it simply isn’t for you, you are able to skip it. Unfortunately, you can only skip 6 songs within an hour.
You’ll receive adverts regularly through Spotify’s free platform. These can’t be skipped, and it’s possible you’ll hear the same ones on repeat. If this doesn’t bother you then it shouldn’t be a problem, it is however a little more radio style than streaming. It takes away the element of control over what you’re hearing, but then again, it is free so who can complain?
Another thing to note is you can’t access a song or album radio. I personally have discovered many new songs or old classics by finding one song I love and heading to the radio playlist. You can, however, still access daily mixes, which are Spotify generated playlists based upon your previous selections.
Plus
This isn’t available right now, so don’t get your hopes up straight away. It’s currently being tested with certain users. The price may also be altered. As this is still in its early stages, Spotify may decide to change this price point depending on what features they add/remove. At the moment it is sitting at $0.99 which seems really affordable for many people who want some extra perks but can’t manage the premium cost each month.
It will still contain adverts, as without the premium plan, this is where the revenue comes from. The adverts won’t be able to be skipped, just like the free option. With Spotify Plus, users will be able to select whichever songs they want to listen to, without the restriction of only being able to use the shuffle mode. There won’t be a limit on skipping songs either, which will be a huge bonus for many current free users.
Premium
At a cost of $9.99 per month, some may say it is quite expensive. I guess if you’re adding up this on top of other streaming platforms you may already use, then it does start to get pricey. Most Spotify users seem to splash out on it though. Mainly to avoid the adverts. With the premium plan, you don’t need to worry about having an ad interrupt your vibes.
You have free rein over what you listen to. Every playlist and song can be accessed, and you can even create your own playlists. Most, if not all, premium users create their own playlist full of their favourite songs. It’s a great way to have different genres you love, all broken down into different places. Again there are no limtations on how many times you can skip.
The radio feature is available on premium. You simply go to a song you like and head to the radio created for it. It gives you the option to download podcasts. Something that the free version doesn’t offer.
Note: This pricing plan does not include Spotify Plus, as it hasn’t officially been released yet.
There are no confirmed dates in which Spotify plans to roll out their Plus tier. It is all still a work in progress currently. With adverts still being played, it is hard to see how Plus will really sell itself. Surely that is the reason most people upgrade? It does offer slightly more flexibility though. Allowing users to customise their listening habits to their own taste. Not much is really known about it at the moment, with it being so new. As more starts to unravel and Spotify solidify this tier, I’m sure we’ll see more interest.
