One of the many reasons that made Spotify a leader in the streaming world is that its Free plan is better than what most Spotify alternatives have in store.
Sure, it’s far from perfect, but the Spotify Free plan does offer value. Now, before we dive into our Spotify Free vs Premium comparison, we have to point out that feature-wise, of course you will get more from the Premium version.
But, depending on your needs, maybe what you get in the Free plan is enough for you. So let’s take it from the top. Spotify Premium vs Free, go!
Transfer your playlists to Spotify if you’re joining or to another streaming service if you’re leaving. The first 500 tracks are on the house.
Spotify Free Plan
While it costs $0, the Spotify Free plan has some caveats. You will have to provide basic information to access your Spotify Free plan because Spotify will target you with audio ads played after every third song. You will also see banners promoting Spotify’s Premium plans.
Another drawback is the limitation of songs you can skip. Don’t like what Spotify is playing? After skipping six songs in an hour, you are all out of luck. You have to wait to get another skip privilege.
Some people are OK with this, and others might find it frustrating. Plenty think it’s acceptable at first but, after having a Spotify Free plan for a few months, realize they want something better.
Spotify Premium Plans
So what is so special about Spotify Premium Plans?
To start, no pesky ads interrupt your rhythm and disrupt your vibe. When you pay for your subscription, Spotify removes all the ads that are such a nuisance with the free plan.
You can search for the songs you want to hear unencumbered and build customized playlists. You also have the luxury of sharing your playlists and creating collaborative ones with your friends.
Spotify offers Individual, Duo, Family (up to 6 people under one roof), and Student plans, with pricing ranging from $5.99 up to $19.99 per month.
The number one difference you will encounter regarding the Spotify plan comparison is the ads vs. no ads. This is regarding both the visual banner ads and the audio ads you will hear after every third song.
Many people who transfer over from radio think, ‘But I’m used to ads.’ However, they soon realize that they’re not as tolerant as they thought they were, especially when you are using Spotify for situations such as parties, road trips, or workouts.
After all, who wants to hear, “In a wreck, get a check” from a local attorney when you’re trying to have a good time.
Spotify Free vs. Spotify Premium: Playback Controls
If you’re on the Spotify Free plan, you have limited shuffle play, meaning you can’t turn on a specific song that you want to listen to. You are at the mercy of the random shuffle order of an album.
If you don’t want to hear a particular song while on shuffle mode, you’re limited to 6 song skips per hour. Meanwhile, Spotify Premium subscribers can happily skip as many as they desire.
Differences of Spotify Free vs Premium: Comparison Table
Check out this Spotify plan comparison for a side-by-side look at how the two plans differ.
| Spotify Free | Spotify Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | Free | $11.99 ($16.99 for Duo plan, and $19.99 for a 6-person Family plan, $5.99 Student plan) |
| Library | Over 100 million tracks | Over 100 million tracks |
| Availability | PCs, smartphones, connected devices, Smart TVs, PS3 & PS4, Android Auto, Spotify Car Thing, Apple Carplay | PCs, smartphones, connected devices, Smart TVs, PS3 & PS4, Android Auto, Spotify Car Thing, Apple Carplay |
| Special Features | Mobile streaming | Ad-free listening, offline listening, unlimited skips, mobile streaming, |
| Flexibility | Online play only, can’t choose the sequence order | Online and offline play, choose which song and in which order to play, play playlists in any order |
| Personalization | Create playlists | Create playlists, play songs in the playlists in order |
| Sound | Max 160 kbps, Desktop 128 kbps | Max 320 kbps on all devices |
Spotify Free vs. Spotify Premium: Supported Devices
As long as you have an account created, Spotify is one of the most easily accessible apps there is. You can listen to Spotify virtually anywhere. Blast your tunes from your PC, tablet, smartphone, smart TV, and even your game consoles. That goes for the Spotify Free plan and any of the Premium plans.
Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or Spotify’s Car Thing can play Spotify whether subscribed to the free or premium version.
Premium Spotify vs. Free: Social Features
Spotify’s social features are a winner when compared to other music streaming services. Spotify makes it easy to share songs and playlists on social media and with friends.
Surprisingly, the features are nearly identical when comparing the free and premium plans. Both can create shareable links, post to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat as well as co-create collaborative playlists.
Where Premium users win out is Spotify Premium has Family Mix and Duo Mix playlists, which use an algorithm to recommend songs based on what family/duo members are listening to.
Winner: Premium
Spotify Free vs. Spotify Premium: Curated Content
With the exception of the Duo/Family mixes exclusive to Premium plan subscribers, the customized playlists on your home page work the same for both Free and Premium plans.
These are playlists created from your listening habits, built from songs you’ve recently enjoyed or music you may like based upon your music taste pulled from songs in the Discover Weekly mix.
Free or paid curation or discovery features work the same. However, with the free plan, you get whatever Spotify throws at you since they shuffle their playlists with similar music.
If you ever find you have given up on Spotify and need to transfer your playlist to another music streaming service, TuneMyMusic has you covered and makes music transfer easy, too.
Spotify Free vs. Premium: Sound Quality
To many people, you will notice little difference in the sound quality between the free and premium plans. At least not when playing your music at a normal noise level and with an average pair of headphones.
However, if you have a discerning ear, top-of-the-line headphones, or you have the music cranked, you might notice a difference between the two if you were to play them side by side.
The Spotify Free plan streams its music at a max of 160kbps and 128kbps on a desktop, while the Premium plans go up to 320kbps.
Spotify Free vs. Spotify Premium: Offline Listening
This is an easy one. Only Spotify Premium allows you to download songs and podcasts to your device and listen anywhere, anytime, regardless if you have a data signal or Wi-Fi. It’s important to note that with offline listening you still need the Spotify player.
There is also a new feature for Premium users called the Spotify Offline Backup Playlist, which gathers a playlist of your most-listened content and makes it available as a convenient playlist even when you’re offline.
The music is not stored on a separate file to be played in a different app. Spotify music stays on Spotify (unless you use TuneMyMusic to transfer your playlists!)
Spotify Free vs. Spotify Premium: Final Score
| Spotify Free | Spotify Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| Music Library | 100+ million tracks | 100+ million tracks |
| Ad-Free | ✗ | ✔ |
| Playback Controls | ✗ | ✔ |
| Supported Devices | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Features | ✔ | ✔ |
| Curated Content | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sound Quality | Up to 160 kbps | Up to 320 kbps |
| Offline Listening | ✗ | ✔ |
| Total | 4 | 8 |
Transferring Your Playlists to or From Spotify
If you’ve had Spotify Premium and aren’t that impressed and think you can do better, don’t leave all your playlists behind. TuneMyMusic can easily transfer your music from one music streaming service to another.
TuneMyMusic supports Spotify, TIDAL, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and many more. You simply cannot go wrong.
Summary: Is Spotify Premium Worth It?
In our opinion, Spotify Premium is absolutely worth it but we also think that the Spotify Free plan is good enough to have as a backup if Spotify is not your primary streaming platform.
If you want to hear Spotify’s very best, the latest and greatest songs curated just for you, get the best sound quality, and listen ad-free on or offline, the Spotify Premium plan is the way to go.
This article is part of our comparisons series that you can find on our comparisons page. The comparisons series is a series of articles that matches and contrasts the pros and cons between music streaming platforms and plans from those services so you can find which one is the right for you.
