- Spotify is the most recognisable name in music streaming and offer free (ad-supported) access to millions of songs and recommendations. If you love discovering new music, or simply want the best all-rounder, hooking up with Spotify will make you happy.
- Price and subscription options. Both Spotify and Apple Music offer a free. three-month trial period for their premium services, which normally cost $9.99, £9.99 or AU$11.99 a month.
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Spotify is arguably the most popular streaming service in the world. It has a massive library of music as well as a sizable library of podcasts. In this Free Spotify vs Spotify Premium breakdown, we’re going to see if the paid version is worth the monthly fee, or if you’re better off bearing through the ads to save money. You may even discover some features of Spotify along the way.
Editor’s note: This Free Spotify vs Spotify Premium article was updated on October 1, 2020, to include links to relevant information and to address an FAQ about Spotify promotions.
Pandora Launched in 2008, Spotify has grown into one of the most popular music streaming companies in the entire world. Its sleek interface and remarkable music discovery features have given it the success it enjoys today. Pandora started with the idea of creating a personalized radio station for each of its subscribers. Alternatives to Spotify for Web, Android, iPhone, Windows, iPad and more. Filter by license to discover only free or Open Source alternatives. This list contains a total of 25+ apps similar to Spotify. List updated: 1:06:00 PM. Nov 09, 2017 In some ways, SoundCloud better than Spotify. Here is some of them: SoundCloud better suits for independent artists. You can share and comment on tracks.
Related: Best music streaming services
The listening experience with Free Spotify is unpleasant
Spotify Free and Premium Spotify may look similar at first, but extended functionality varies greatly.
There are some key functional differences between Free Spotify and Spotify Premium, particularly with the mobile interface. With the free mobile version, you can only skip six tracks per hour, whereas with Premium, you can skip as many as you’d like. Skip limits can put a damper on things when you repeatedly aren’t in the mood for certain randomized songs, but sure it’s a forgivable inconvenience.
Spotify Premium let’s you skip tracks endlessly, the free version does not
Another drawback to Free Spotify on mobile: you can’t select specific songs for playback. Rather, you can select an album or a playlist and shuffle the songs in it. This can get annoying when you have an earworm and just need to listen to that particular song. With Premium, you can listen to that song over and over to your little heart’s content.
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May 5, 2020There is a caveat with Free Spotify, however; you can select songs for playback with unlimited skips, so long as you are listening to them from one of Spotify’s 15 curated playlists under “Made for You” on the “Home” page. These include popular editorial playlists, such as “RapCaviar” and “Alternative R&B,” and playlists algorithmically tailored to your listening preferences such as “Discover Weekly,” “Daily Mix,” and “Release Radar.” The songs on these playlists change frequently. If there’s a blue shuffle icon next to the playlist title, you may only shuffle songs.
Get ready for annoying ads with Free Spotify
The absolute worst thing about Free Spotify is how frequently ads interrupt playback. The advertisements are incredibly annoying, are surely designed to be that way. Many of them feature the most irritating noises you could imagine, such as traffic horns overlaid with a voice saying things like, “Is this annoying? If you buy Premium, you won’t have to listen to this anymore.” I’ll give them credit, because this tactic of being obnoxious works pretty well: paying for Spotify Premium is almost worth it for the sole purpose of removing these ads.
Listen offline with Spotify Premium
Depending on how much you pay for data, it might be a good idea to save your favorite tunes for offline listening.
With Spotify Premium, you can download an unlimited number of tracks for offline listening. This is great for long flights or if you want to turn off your data while away from home. With Free Spotify, you aren’t able to download any music, so you may be spending money in the form of data usage rather than a Premium subscription.
On the desktop Spotify app, there are fewer discrepancies between Free Spotify and Spotify Premium. For example, on the desktop app you can select any specific song you want with unlimited skips regardless of if you have Spotify Premium or not. However, you are still subjected to ads on Free Spotify with the desktop app, and you cannot download music for offline listening on your computer unless you have Spotify Premium.
A glitch to Spotify Free affords Premium features
In August 2020, there was a glitch with Free Spotify that allowed for unlimited skips, specific song selection, and ad-free listening on both the mobile and desktop versions of the streaming service. This glitch made it almost identical to Spotify Premium, minus the ability to download music for offline listening. I reached out to a Spotify customer service rep, who told me, “To my knowledge we have ads and limited skips on the Free version.” This glitch surely will not last forever, though, so I’m going to have to crown the winner of best listening experience to Spotify Premium.
Winner: Spotify Premium
Free Spotify vs Spotify Premium: Discovery features are identical
Spotify Discover and Release Radar update every Monday to introduce new songs to its users.
One of the best things about Spotify is the way it promotes discovery of new music. This is apparent in its algorithmically produced playlists, designed to suggest styles of music that align with your listening history. The “Discover Weekly” and “Daily Mix” playlists are updated frequently with new suggestions. Perhaps you really dislike a recommended song or artist, you can press a button telling it to avoid a certain type of music or to blacklist that artist from your profile. The “Release Radar” playlist churns out new releases from artists you follow and updates weekly.
One of Spotify’s best features is available to Free and Premium users.
Spotify has a large variety of genres, moods, and other categories under the Browse tab, and here you can listen to its editorial playlists to discover new music. It will also recommend editorial playlists based on your listening activity, and it will algorithmically create “Radio” playlists for every song, artist, album, and playlist.
When you create a new playlist, the Spotify algorithm suggests songs for you based on the title of your playlist as well as the songs you’ve already put into it. Regardless of if you’ve paid for Spotify Premium, these discovery features are available and very helpful.
Winner: Draw
Free or paid, enjoy the same social features
Spotify for desktop looks the same no matter what version you subscribe to.
Music has always been a social art form, but things have changed quite a bit since the days my dad would buy the latest Neil Young record on vinyl and sit around the turntable with his friends. Of course, people still get together to listen to music nowadays—though, perhaps not so much in 2020. There’s something exciting about sharing the social benefits of music with others, even when you’re trapped at home. Spotify uses several different tools on its platform to encourage music sharing, and you don’t need to buy Premium to access any of them.
Enjoy collaborative playlists on Spotify
To create collaborative playlists, press the three-dot symbol at the top-right of your screen (mobile), or next to the playlist title (desktop), and select “Collaborative Playlist.” Then, by share the playlist link with your friends. This will let them add and remove songs to and from it. Anybody with the link may do so, and it’s private unless someone holds the link. Collaborative playlists are great for when you and your roommates are throwing a party, or you’re planning a road trip with friends. Heck, they’re even good for when you just want to share some songs with someone regularly.
In a similar vein, if you have a Premium Family subscription or a Premium Duo subscription, Spotify will algorithmically create either a “Family Mix” or “Duo Mix” of songs based on the listening history of all the subscribed members. This isn’t technically a social feature because these playlists are created by Spotify and not the users themselves, so I’m not going to count its absence against Free Spotify.
Peek at what your friends are rocking out to
If you use Facebook, you can link your Spotify account to your Facebook account, making it easy for your Facebook friends to find your profile on Spotify by name or through the Find Friends button on the desktop app. You can search for your friends’ Spotify usernames; browse and add their playlists to your library; view their recent listening history; and, on the desktop Spotify app, view their active listening history.
This is a great way to discover new music and gain an idea of what types of music your friends are listening to. If it creeps you out that people can look through your playlists or see what you’re actively listening to, you can make your playlists private and disable the active listening feed. All of these features are available whether or not you pay for Premium.
Winner: Draw
Some music may be unavailable if you don’t pay for Premium
Free Spotify pays artists less per steam than Spotify Premium does. In response to this discrepancy, Spotify allows artists to set up a paywall for the first two weeks after a release. If an artist chooses this option, their release will only be available to Premium users until the two weeks have gone by. If it’s important to you to have access to all the latest releases, this may be a feature that sways you to pay for Spotify Premium. Additionally, if you value the amount of money your favorite artists are getting paid, Premium is superior in that department. The following chart depicts the average amount Spotify pays artists per stream.
Digital Service Provider | $ Per Stream |
---|---|
Qobuz | $0.04390 |
Peloton | $0.04036 |
iHeartRadio | $0.01426 |
Amazon Unlimited | $0.01175 |
Napster/Rhapsody | $0.01110 |
24/7 Entertainment GmbH | $0.01050 |
YouTube Red | $0.00948 |
Tidal | $0.00927 |
Deezer | $0.00567 |
Google Play | $0.00543 |
Apple | $0.00495 |
KKBox | $0.00435 |
Amazon Digital Services Inc. | $0.00395 |
Spotify | $0.00331 |
Loen | $0.00205 |
Pandora | $0.00155 |
Vevo | $0.00109 |
Yandex LLC | $0.00051 |
YouTube Content ID | $0.00028 |
UMA | $0.00013 |
Winner: Premium
Free Spotify vs Spotify Premium: Sound quality is higher with Premium
While there is no high-resolution option for Spotify users, and Spotify only supports AAC and Ogg Vorbis, lossy file formats, there are still key differences in sound quality between Free Spotify and Spotify Premium. With Free Spotify, the maximum bitrate you can stream at is 128kbps on the desktop app and 160kbps on the mobile app, whereas Spotify Premium affords you 320kbps streaming on both desktop and mobile. In essence, this means that Spotify Premium’s music contains more data points and therefore more detail to its sound.
Streaming Service | Max streaming quality | Supported Formats |
---|---|---|
Qobuz | 24bit / 192kHz | AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless |
Amazon Music HD | 24bit /192kHz | FLAC |
Tidal HiFi | 24bit / 96kHz | AAC, ALAC, FLAC |
Deezer HiFi | 16bit / 44.1kHz | FLAC |
Google Play Music | 320kbps | AAC, ALAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA |
Deezer Premium | 320kbps | MP3 |
Spotify Premium | 320kbps | AAC, Ogg Vorbis |
Apple Music | 256kbps | AAC |
YouTube Music Premium | 256kbps | AAC |
SoundCloud Go+ | 256kbps | AAC |
Slacker Radio | 320kbps | MP3 |
Pandora | 192kbps | AAC |
Spotify Free | 160kbps | AAC |
Deezer Free | 128kbps | MP3 |
Spotify Premium has higher quality than Free Spotify, but it doesn’t have a HiFi setting. If you’re looking for a high fidelity streaming service, try Tidal HiFi.
Winner: Spotify Premium
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There are different priced memberships for Premium, but Free is free
Spotify offers four different types of Premium subscriptions, and some of them are really great deals. First, there is the Spotify Premium Individual subscription, which is $9.99/month. This allows access to all the Premium features such as no ad interruptions, on-demand playback, and downloading tracks for offline listening. If you’re a full-time student at a university or college, you should be eligible for the Premium Student subscription, which is $4.99/month. Not only does this afford you all the same abilities of Spotify Premium, but, if you are a student in the United States, it also includes a subscription to SHOWTIME and the ad-supported version of Hulu.
If you want to share a Premium account with your live-in partner, you can get Premium Duo. It costs $12.99/month and both you and your partner will have your own separate accounts. Along with all the regular Premium features, you have the option to join “Duo Mix.” You and your partner can both go to the “Duo Mix” on your “Made for You” page on the mobile app, click the three dots, and select “Join Duo Mix.” Spotify will algorithmically design a playlist to be appealing to both you and your partner. You can change the mix to be chill or upbeat, depending on the mood, and you can choose to remove any explicit songs from the mix. Each song has the profile picture of either you or your partner next to it, so you can see whose listening activity the song was generated from.
Spotify offers a family plan, a plan for couples, and a student rate.
Spotify Premium Family is very similar to Premium Duo, as all members must live at the same address. Premium Family, though, can support up to six separate accounts, and costs $14.99/month. Parents can choose to block explicit music for specific members, and children can use their Premium Family account on the Spotify Kids app. In addition to these features and all the regular Premium features, your family can listen to a generated “Family Mix” which works just like the “Duo Mix.”
All of these subscription options are very cool, but ultimately, when it comes down to it, free is free. If the absence of needing to fork over a portion of your paycheck every month is enough motivation to deal with the ads, lack of features, and inconvenience of Free Spotify, then Free Spotify is going to be the option for you.
Winner: Spotify Free
What are some lesser known Spotify features?
Spotify constantly and consistently comes out with new features. For example, in 2017, it created a “Time Capsule” playlist for all of its 16-years-old-and-up users, Premium or not. These playlists were personalized based on their extensive listening history. It was created to be the kind of playlist users would have listened to in their teenage years. Pretty cool, huh? Another recent creation of Spotify’s was the “Pet Playlist,” which users could personalize by inputting the species of their pet as well as ranking their pet’s behaviors across a few different spectra. This data was then mixed with the genres and styles of music the user enjoys to create a playlist for users and their furry best friends.
Express yourself on Tinder and Instagram
Can i download whole albums with spotify playlists. Spotify has partnerships with many other apps, including Instagram and Tinder. You can share the name, artist, and album artwork of a song to your Instagram story with the click of a button on Spotify. If you link your Spotify account to Tinder, you can publish your frequently played songs on your Tinder profile, you know, to make sure you attract people with as impeccable music taste as yourself. And, of course, you can connect your account with Facebook to find friends more easily.
Spotify plays nicely with Android Auto and has its own Carplay mode
Spotify ios version apk download. Carplay simplifies the interface, so distractions are lessened.
When you connect your smartphone to your car by Bluetooth, Spotify will automatically go into Carplay mode or Android Auto mode, depending on your OS and if your car is compatible with these features. These features reduce the amount of information displayed on the screen, making it safer to navigate the app while in the car. (We don’t recommend using the app while actively driving, though. Have your passenger do it.) They also make for easy integration with the navigation apps Google Maps and Waze. Similarly, many music-listening devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus, offer Spotify integration for easy access.
That’s a wrap: End-of-year statistics
My personal favorite Spotify feature is “Spotify Wrapped.” In December of every year, Spotify creates an animation of statistics for each user, including but not limited to the song they listened to most over the past year, how many total minutes they spent listening to music over the past year, the podcast the user listened to most often, and the countries all the artists they listened to are based out of. In addition to this, Wrapped shows users the statistics generalized by region and in the world as a whole.
In December of 2019, Spotify even had “Wrapped” stats for the whole decade. “Wrapped” is available for both Free and Premium users, but Premium users get additional personalized data including the number of artists they discovered that year as well as their top new artist from that year. Because of this one small detail, Spotify Premium wins this section, but, all Spotify users get a lot of really cool features.
Winner: Spotify Premium
Free Spotify vs Spotify Premium: Which one is better?
And the winner is Spotify Premium! It’s pretty clear that Premium has more features than Free Spotify, but whether or not you’re willing to pay for a subscription depends on you, of course. If you can get a student, family, or duo membership, Spotify Premium isn’t too pricey, but if you’re still on the fence, Spotify has free month-long trials of Premium. Until next time, happy listening.
Next: Apple Music review
Can I get a free Google Nest Mini with Spotify Premium?
Not anymore! In September, Spotify teamed up with Google to give away free Google Nest Minis to all Spotify Premium subscribers, new and old. This promotion has since ended, but keep an eye on Spotify's website because it does promotions like this fairly frequently.
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'I can't decide between Spotify and Deezer. I'm currently a Deezer subscriber and happy with it but I'm thinking about moving to Spotify because it seems more popular than Deezer. For some features of Spotify are unavailable on Deezer and vice versa.'
The question above is asked by a headache Spotify Users on Spotify Community puzzling the users who both use Spotify and Deezer for enjoying music. As the popular streaming music apps, Spotify and Deezer have its own splendid musical shining points. Knowing the trouble you faced with, we have done a detailed research on Spotify VS Deezer and share what we gained with the following post. We hope this overall comparison will help you make the right decision on Spotify VS Deezer. Come and learn about it now!
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Part 1. Comparison of the Basic Services on Spotify & Deezer
In order to help you better master the differences and similarities on between Spotify and Deezer, we have divided into several points for you. You can learn it one by one.
Point 1. Music Library and Available Country
There is a huge difference between Spotify and Deezer when it comes to Music Library and country.
Spotify: Provide with over 40 million tracks from its music library and available among 58 countries
Deezer: Over 43 million tracks playable on more than 180 countries.
Winner: Deezer. Deezer covers more countries than Spotify offers. Besides, its music library is a little more than that of Spotify. Thus, if you are Spotify fans, please check your country are listed in the available countries of Spotify.
Point 2. Music Quality on Both Free Users and Paid Users
Both Spotify and Deezer are provided with different music quality, which is the basic requirement of listening to music. Let's see what difference when Spotify vs Deezer.
Spotify: Free Users can enjoy 128kbps music quality, however, if you are the paid subscriber, you can enjoy reach up to 320kbps OGG Vorbis music quality.
Deezer: Free Users can enjoy 128kbps music quality, however, if you are the paid users, you can choose the music quality of 320kbps MP3 or 1411kbps FLAC/MQA.
Winner: Spotify. Although Deezer allows users to enjoy the commonly-used file format for the same quality as Spotify provided, the Free Version of Deezer provides a lower audio quality like the free version of Spotify.
Recommend Reading:How to enjoy high-quality music with Spotify Free Membership
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Point 3. Ads When Listening to Music
Both Spotify and Deezer contains the Ads-supported streaming service and the same ads-free service with subscribe as the premium member. However, there is the way to enjoy ads-free when listening to Spotify Music provided below.
Users Guide:Enjoy Spotify with Ad-Free For Spotify Free Member
Winner: Spotify. Although Spotify is Ads-on music service, you can still enjoy Ad-free music with the help of the third-party software, named TuneFab Spotify Music Converter without subscribed as a premium member.
Spotify premium free iosemus. What is TuneFab Spotify Music Converter?TuneFab Spotify Music Converter is not only a Spotify DRM Removal but also a Spotify Ads Blocker with the aim of downloading and keeping Spotify music with 5X conversion speed and keep music as the original one.
Point 4. Plans and Payments
To decide which streaming music apps you can have a try, it is better to get to know about the plans and payment for it matters your hard-earned money.
Spotify: Spotify has 3 kinds of plans together with different payments: for the individual required £9.99/$9.99/month, family £14.99/$14.99/month, student £4.99/$4.99/month. You can choose the suitable plan in accord with your needs.
Deezer: Deezer offer more plans to satisfy different people need for different payments: for the individual required £9.99/$9.99/month, HiFi (16-bit/44.1kHz) £19.99/$14.99, family £14.99/$14.99, student £4.99.
Winner: Deezer. It seems like Deezer want to grab the public attention by providing high music quality. However, you might have known that Spotify is going to provide the same service as Deezer. So based on this factors, they will be in equal position when it comes to this point.
Related Reading:Spotify Lossless Playback Test: Do You Want to Try It?
Point 5. Support Devices
After learning about the music library, quality, ads and plans and payments, it is better to gain the difference between Spotify and Deezer.
Spotify: Android and iOS devices, computers, games consoles, speakers, TVs, cars, wearables, tablet, AV receiver, theater system, streaming media players, tabletop radio, and other devices.
Deezer: PC/Mac, mobile & smartwatch, tablet, games consoles, speakers, TV, sounds system, cars, Blackberry and Windows mobile.
Winner: Spotify. Seems like Spotify are available on more devices when compared with Deezer, like Wearables.
Point 6: Platforms
There is still a little difference on between Spotify and Deezer. If you want to play Spotify or Deezer on platforms, it is better to check this point.
Spotify: Email, text message, Facebook, and Twitter.
Deezer: Airdrop, Facebook, and Twitter.
Winner: Spotify. It is better to share music with email your favorite Spotify music with your friends and even in the text message.
Point 7: Interface
Check the following 2 pictures of Spotify and Deezer, you can have a clear mind of both of Spotify and Deezer.
Spotify:
Deezer:
Winner: Spotify. It is because all the playlists of Spotify are in a rounded shape which is more relevant to the music disc and is artistic.
Short Summary: When compared with Spotify and Deezer with these 7 points, you may be still confused to make a decision of choosing Spotify or Deezer. However, after reading the next part of downloaded functions and differentiating features of Spotify and Deezer, you can make up your mind.
Part 2. Advanced Comparison of Functions and Features of Spotify and Deezer
Point 1: Offline Listening Mode
Both of Spotify and Deezer has consisted of the Offline Downloading mode. However, something needs to be paid attention to is that all the downloaded files are cache files. In other words, the downloaded files from Spotify and Deezer are failed to transfer from one device to others. With the help of TuneFab Spotify Music Converter, you can enjoy Spotify Music downloading features without devices limitations.
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Enjoy! Quick Ways to Listen to Spotify Offline for Free
Winner: Spotify. Since Spotify has the larger Spotify membership than Deezer', it is better for those Spotify Free users to download Music and enjoy it on more devices.
Point 2. Differentiating Features
There are some features of Spotify which Deezer not. And there are some features of Deezer which Spotify not. Thus, it is better to know these differentiating features of Spotify and Deezer.
Spotify Differentiating Features:
#1 Spotify Connect: Spotify connect allows users to enjoy Spotify Music to the Spotify-supported devices. However, these features are available for the Spotify Premium member.
#2 Spotify Radio: Spotify allows to enjoy Spotify music suit for their own taste with Spotify Radio. Moreover, it is available to create your own Spotify radio to meet your need.
#3 Spotify Crossfade Tracks: It is dissatisfactory to hear the interval times when enjoying Spotify Music. So Spotify offers the crossfade functions to make your Spotify Music enjoyment enjoyable.
#4 Daily Mix: Spotify always knowing your needs on playing Spotify Music so they provide the unique feature named Daily Mix and you can decide the music of your own wish.
#5 Release Radar: These features are the playlists released every Friday. It provides the music you listening, the following artists and discoveries.
#6 Friend Feed: Wanna to know what your friends listening to? The Friend Feed is here for you to check through your friends' activities and then you can enjoy the music from your friends' playlists or listening activities.
#7 Artist profiles: What to get the first-hand music and every releases and information of your favorite artists.
Deezer Differentiating Features:
#1 Flow playlist: It is the feature that mixes your personal music together with the fresh recommendation, making your music experience flexible.
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#2 karaoke-style’ lyrics: Wanna to singing at your home with the music apps you are listened to? Deezer offers the Karaoke lyrics for you to sing to whatever music playlists.
#3 Playlists classification: All your music playlists are divided into Playlists Picks, Popular, and Top tracks so that it makes your music playlists in order.
Winner: Spotify. Checking with all the differentiating features of both Spotify and Deezer, it is so easy to find out that Spotify is the best one for the advanced enjoyment of Spotify.
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After learning this overall comparison, have you decided which music apps you will enjoy when Deezer vs Spotify?