Spotify Price Increases - What Is The Experience with Free Spotify?

Hi Folks
I am considering switching to the free Spotify as the upcoming price increases are just too much to justify for now.

Quick question, does anyone know if your still able to link free spotify up with google home to request songs? I am aware there will be ads etc, but does requesting a specific song still work?

Thanks

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Comments

  • +4

    You can specify songs. You will have limited “skipping”. You can trial it by creating another free account

    • No reason why OP cannot cease thier paid account and move to a free account..
      Can always move back to paid account.

      I think most dont mind the FREE account

  • +1

    VPN into India
    Get gift card from Amazon.in using australian credit card (prefer 0 international trx fee)
    Add it to the account.
    Disconnect from VPN
    Login normally and njoy

    • +2

      I tried this recently, got my Amazon account locked.

      Had to go thru hoops to get it unlocked

    • Usually i buy from it, but today seems to be out of stock :/

  • +3

    Can't vouch for the quality of these services, or if they offer the same/all of the features of Spotify but there's always Demus or Nonoki as an alternative streaming service

  • +5

    You could join or start an Apple Music family plan. $20 between six people is $3.33 a month per person. Cheaper than Spotify's family plan at $24 a month. I find it's easiest to get people to pay you a year ahead to join the plan, pro-rating it for each person to pay on new years at the same time. And if people pay you then you don't need to worry about being suddenly cut off, although you have to go through the bother of organising it to get the discount.

    I wouldn't use Spotify free tier. The ads are obnoxious and targeted to your location. Spotify free is for broke uni students and teenagers.

  • +1

    Didn't they last increase prices late last year?

    • +2

      This is their second price increase within 12 months! And pretty sure they just laid off 1000 staff as part of a restructuring. Spotify shares are up 17% this month so the shareholders are very happy with this.

      But I’m not a shareholder so booo

      • +1

        Spotify shares are up 17% this month so the shareholders are very happy with this.

        Will they be happy when subscribers don't renew?

  • +7

    Just signup to youtube premium and you get youtube music and ad free youtube, youtube music has a bigger library than spotify.

    Other benefits, you can download youtube videos to watch offline and play video in the background while in other apps on phone.

    youtube is currently cheaper by $3

    • -5

      youtube is currently cheaper by $3

      youtube is free.

      • +5

        youtube is free.

        you are the product

        • +17

          Thank you.

          I'm flattered.

        • +15

          I don't care if they track what I'm watching, they'd know it even if I were paying.
          I go to every extent to block ads from YouTube on every platform however, it truly is the paid experience for free.

          • Rebuilt the app for Android to have ad blocking and SponsorBlock built in, custom features too
          • SmartTube on Google TV = no ads and SponsorBlock
          • Rooted LG TV's to have modded YouTube apps
          • Adguard DNS, Adguard extensions - Adguard+Adguard Extra (for sites that need special treatment)

          Way better than paying $18 a month and not even being able to use SponsorBlock on the official apps.
          They can sell all the data of me watching a documentary or listening to music all they want, I'm pretty sure I'm still better off at the end of the day.

          I realise I've written way too much for this but goddamn I hate ads and subscriptions lmao

        • +1

          I wouldn’t want to be associated with a company that wants me as a product. It’s standards are way too low

        • And someone with YouTube premium is paying to be the product.

        • You’re also the product with most paid software these days unfortunately.

    • +2

      Or there is the free music service you get with Amazon Prime, or the paid Amazon Music service, or there are ….. other …. ways of getting free spotify like services.

      Personally glad I stuck with MP3s - there's nothing new I want to listen too.

      • Haven't tried Amazon music despite having prime, thanks, will give it a go

        • No it’s terrible. Don’t bother

    • +3

      youtube is currently cheaper by $3

      And YouTube Premium individual plan will raise to $16.99/mo from 18 May, making it $3 more expensive than Spotify :(

    • +1

      cant just run firefox on phone, add ad blocker?

      • That's how I go, Firefox and uBlock Origin.

        There's an add-on for background playback too, or Firefox might do it natively, I can't remember

      • Brave fixes youtu e out of the box. No ads, background play, pip etc

    • +3

      Just sign up to premium via Turkey if its still works for new signups

      • How much is the sub?

        • I signed up with Russian YouTube years ago, it's about 3 bucks a month

  • +10

    You can get modified Spotify apks.

    • +1

      You may have to search a bit, but you can usually xmanager to find something useful on github

    • Tried this the other day, and it wouldn't work on Android Auto in the car. Deleted the app and went back to paying for it LOL

      • +1

        You have to enable developer mode in the android auto settings, and allow other apps.

        • I'm guessing we tick the box next to "unknown sources"?

  • +4

    I am aware there will be ads etc

    WHAT ABOUT HOW LOUD THEY ARE? Compared to the actual music.

    That is what I found to be the most annoying thing about the Free Version.

    —————————————————————————————————————————

    Also, the increase is apparently due to "audiobooks". Well, what about those who don't use Audiobooks or want them? Couldn't Spotify just have it as an add-on?

    • +2

      I've premium and listened to a podcast there for the first time, was listening to it in peace in bed then BAM, volume 300% ad promoting whatever bullshit they did.

      • Lmao can't stop laughing

      • +1

        To be fair, I think that’s the podcast producer’s choice to include ads to monetise, not Spotify.

        I’ve been listening to podcasts for a while on Family subscription, and only recall a couple ever having ads.

  • +2

    Someone is paying for me from Ph around $4-5 per month or 160 pesos. 2+ years strong now.

  • Free Spotify never use somehow I h8 the ads

  • +1

    You are all legends, thanks for the healthy discussion here. I've got some ideas now on what to do which is great.

    Either way it's bye bye to Spotify premium for me.

    I never thought of YouTuve, I've got the India subscription for premium so it's $40 for the year (currently 4 months left) Il try that out for now as it links to our Googles

    Il also try out the free Spotify on another account, but gosh having the ads play louder then the music…that would drive me insane

    • I ditched Spotify years ago for YouTube music via VPN. Has most songs I've looked for and does the same thing.

    • You can use a cracked apk version of spotify / YT music too.

    • There is an easy way to transfer your playlists from Spotify to Youtube Music:
      https://www.reddit.com/r/YoutubeMusic/comments/1193llv/trans…

      I'm sure there are another methods as well. Same for Spotify -> Apple Music.

  • +5

    I use Revanced Manager to patch YouTube, YouTube Music and Reddit.

    Works pretty good.

  • +4

    If you do end up using spotify free, you have a moral obligation to block the ads.

    There's a modded APK file for Android, ublock origin for the browser.

    There's a patched IPA file for iOS if you can get a dev cert setup.

    • +3

      SpotX for Windows, SpotX-Bash for MacOS and Linux, xManager for Android (don't forget to disable the in-app ads in settings) and SpotC for iOS (and no you do not need a Developer account if you renew the apps every 7 days).

  • Apparently not https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7030379
    But some people managed to do with Google Hub.

    Interesting that you seem to use this a lot, Google Home/Spotify keeps playing the wrong song when I request it.

    • +1

      Ah man that sucks. We mainly use it to quiet the kids down in the kitchen "hey google play bluey music"

  • +4

    Free Premium options

    (posting in top level comment for visibility)

    SpotX for Windows, SpotX-Bash for MacOS and Linux, xManager for Android (don't forget to disable the in-app ads in settings) and SpotC for iOS (and no you do not need a Developer account if you renew the apps every 7 days).

  • +1

    Deezer are dropping free completely. I think I have a few days to sign up, as an ex-customer, for a 3 months for the price of 1 plan. There used to be programs that let you rip lossless music from Deezer, but I have no idea what works now. When you listen to a song normally all the data for the track gets sent to you but the default software disallows saving. YouTube is the same, but there are heaps of programs that let you rip entire videos or just the audio.

  • Brave offline playlist from YouTube.

  • +1

    Just Youtube Turish or India or Spa

    It's around $2AUD/month where I get NoAds and Premium Youtube Music. Play in the background, skipping, etc.

    It's a great experience on tablets and Phones, less hassle

  • Spotify free is completely unusable now. It used to be okay. You could skip ads and you wouldn't get too many of them, but now there are multiple ads every couple of songs.

  • Xmanager… Was paying customer but they keep increasing prices so

  • I recently cancelled Spotify and now just use YouTube music that I have as part of premium (VPN)

  • +1

    Amazon music is free if you are paying for prime anyway ($79/year). I’m trying it out at the moment. Worth it so far as I mostly listen to my audiobooks and not fussy about music.

  • We're in the same boat but we really like Tidal and now that lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos is included in the normal Tier (which admittedly is only 50c less than what spotify wants to become now), we're switching.

    I think Spotify will see some blowback here. They've been promising HiRes audio for 3 years now and really have given us nothing we use yet bumping prices all the time.

    bye bye good riddance for now.

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