You might have missed the news flash that Spotify is now ‘free’ on mobile devices (tablets, smart phones and ChromeBooks) and PCs. As a long-time Pandora listener, the only thing that’s better than free music, is being able to freely access a specific song or album you’re interested in listening. So, if you haven’t discovered Spotify yet, you really should check it out.
I have Spotify running on an Android (Moto X) smartphone, an iPad 2, and a Samsung ChromeBook using the ‘free’ service. I’m also about to test it on a Mac mini running Mavericks and a Windows 8.1 laptop. In addition, I tried running the Spotify channel on Roku, but found that it requires a $9.99/month Premium subscription, unless you happen to be a student, in which case Premium costs $4.99/month. Before talking about the benefits of Premium, I’d like to explain what ‘free’ really means. According to the Spotify website, free means:
You can find the right music and shuffle play it on any iOS or Android device.
- Your music: Listen to all the playlists you’ve created and playlists from the people you follow. Spotify lets you discover new music, save, shuffle and share.
- Your favorite artists: Want to listen to a certain artist? Just hit shuffle play, sit back and listen to their entire catalogue. Don’t settle for something similar. Don’t settle for just one track from the artist you want to hear every 20 minutes. (I think they’re slamming Pandora here – play nice Spotify… I love my Pandora)
- Discover great new playlists: Going for a jog or to the gym? We’ve got the playlist to help you go the extra mile. We know you just want the perfect music for a specific moment in time – and we’ve got you covered. There’s something for every mood, genre or moment.
Spotify also says their service is free for ‘computers’. As mentioned, I’ll be testing Spotify on both Mac and PC platforms shortly. But for now, I must say the free service on Android and iOS platforms quite simply rocks! And if you have the ability to stream Spotify from your mobile device to Bluetooth speakers, and to your TV or entertainment system via AirPlay or ChromeCast (to mention a couple options), then you can get a rich audio listening experience for free.
But if you really want to play Spotify on your Roku and don’t mind paying the $10/month for the Premium subscription, here’s what else you get with Premium:
- Play any song, anywhere, any platform
- Download music & listen offline in high-quality audio
- No audio ads (yes, these can be annoying) & no commitment (pay as you go, cancel anytime)
Considering how little $10 buys these days, this sounds like a great deal. But I’m not going to do it and here’s why. NetFlix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, Audible… are all subscription based and are all great services, but when I stretch my entertainment dollar across the paid services I actually use, Spotify doesn’t get a share of that dollar. Plus I’m still going to listen to Pandora most of the time because I like the variety and hearing artists I wouldn’t normally have listened to.
Just to give you an idea of what Spotify looks like on an iPad, I snapped the following two screen shots. The first shot shows the results from a search for Eric Clapton. Then the second shot is the result of an album selection (in this case a 2-CD set). Once an album is selected, you can play all the tracks on that album sequentially – with occasional advertising breaks, which you need to anticipate with the free service.
Insert pictures here
As a footnote, Spotify has in the past imposed listening time limits in certain markets. Straight from the Spotify website, there are no time limits in the US market. Here’s what Spotify has to say about this:
“There have never been any time limits in place in the U.S., but in some other markets, users were restricted to some hours a month once a 6-month unlimited grace period had passed. But now, if you haven’t noticed, there’s no more time limit if you are using Spotify for free. We have removed these caps completely across all platforms – you can listen to your favorite songs as many times as you like, for as long as you want.”
That’s right, no more time limits.
Music makes you happy – why limit your happiness?”
