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Spotify Review: What To Know Before Signing Up

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Music is a unique experience, and when provided to users correctly it can be a magical thing. Unlike the iPhone or devices running Google’s Android operating system, music knows no roots in technology. It’s an ancient art form, something humans have produced and admired for hundreds of years. For many users, Spotify, the world’s most widely used subscription music service, is how they tap into the magical world of music.

And it’s easy to see why they do. The iPhone and other mobile devices’ marketplaces are stuffed full of random music services, but they don’t compare to Spotify. It has its own tricks, its own ways for users to learn about new music and its own restrictions that make using it more useful than purchasing CDs and copying their content over.

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Read: Why Spotify Looks Different for iPhone Users

What You Need to Know Before Signing Up

Today, there are dozens of music services available for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. They each come with their own quirks that users have to understand before signing up. Spotify for the iPhone & iPad has its own set of quirks too.

In order to attract as many users as possible, Spotify for iPhone allows users to stream from their content library absolutely free of charge, provided that they sign up for a free account and login to the mobile app. Once logged in users can stream an unlimited amount of songs in sequential order from playlists provided by the service and from other users. Spotify does throw audio and visual advertisements into the playlists automatically.

Of course, that users are forced to listen to those advertisements is the biggest catch, however there are also some other downsides of using Spotify without a subscription. Today, Spotify for iPhone users who haven’t signed up are only granted a certain number of skips per day. That is to say, users can only try to skip so many songs in a playlist before the service stops allowing them to go to the next song. How man skips users are allowed to perform per day has changed over the years. Today, that limit is 5. Spotify used to restrict users from playing their favorite songs more than 5 times without a subscription too, but it ditched that restriction back in 2012.

For some users, having to listen to advertisements and not be able to skip individual songs is going to be worth paying the $9.99 a month that it costs for a Spotify subscription. Spotify Premium subscribers don’t listen to advertisements and they can download music to keep on their device in the event that they don’t have an internet connection. That’s key since Spotify for iPhone users are likely to be moving around in places that don’t have a strong internet signal. Above everything, the key advantage is that users are able to listen to Spotify on every single device they own, free. Spotify streaming is currently limited to the Mac, PC, iPhone and Android, so Windows Phone or users with other devices will need to pay for the subscription anyway.

Getting & Finding Your Music Anywhere

Building a Collection

How to Download Music From Spotify on the iPhone & iPad (4)

Spotify for iPhone and the rest of the apps and services have won over music listeners the world over for more than just offering free streams. Spotify approaches music listening from a problem solving perspective. With older music subscription services like Microsoft’s Zune or Rhapsody, users had to tether their mobile devices to their computer and manually transfer music over to it. It’s a process that iTunes users who’ve purchased music through the iTunes Store should be familiar with.

Spotify lets users weave together a library that’s available wherever they are. Adding playlists, albums or songs to the Spotify for iPhone app will make it available on the Spotify for Windows and Mac apps and vice versa. It really takes out a key inconvenience of past services. It helps that Spotify is available absolutely everywhere. There are apps for Windows Phone, Android, iOS, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows and Mac OS. In addition, there is a web app for everyone to use in their web browser. It too allows users to stream music for free with ads. It’s because of these two things that users can build a library in Spotify for iPhone and know that it will be available on other platforms should they ever decide to switch.

Finding Music

How to Download Music From Spotify on the iPhone & iPad (9)

Browsing Spotify is easy.

Where Spotify for iPhone and its other versions really blow other music subscription services out of the water is the way users find music that they love.

Users can quickly and easily discover music by finding a song, album, or artist they like and activating the Radio feature. The Radio system analyzes the content in question and then provides a three-hour long playlist based around that. Users can start out with an artist they’ve heard hundreds of times before and end up with all new favorite songs or albums. It’s a unique idea, one that embraces the music discover powers of traditional radio without all the hassle.

Spotify for iPhone subscribers could stream music from the service for years and never realize that Spotify is also the world’s largest music social network service. When signing up, users are asked to pair Spotify with their Facebook account. Users who do can follow their friends and family to see what they’re listening to. By default Spotify broadcasts what users are listening in real-time to other subscribers. Thankfully, users can choose to make their listening habits private for a single session or permanently.

Spotify editors create their own line of specialty playlists that are automatically updated with new tracks. Users themselves can create their own playlists and share them with everyone. For example, Spotify has a dance playlists that updates every week, and right now there is a very popular playlists created for the music featured in the Grand Theft Audio series of console games.

How to Download Music From Spotify on the iPhone & iPad (7)

Users follow playlists that are updated over time.

All of these features are on top of an app experience that feels like it was made by real music fans. There are tons of shortcuts for discovering more music from single artists through out the Spotify for iPhone experience and biographies for popular artists that discuses their influences and musical styles. Spotify automatically sends users notifications when playlists they follow have been updated too. Spotify really is like having a music store in your pocket.

Is It Worth It?

Artist biographies in Spotify for iPhone.

Artist biographies in Spotify for iPhone.

So is Spotify for iPhone worth downloading? Absolutely, especially since its music catalog and free music streaming services are the best available. That much goes without saying. iTunes Radio is useful, but it’s not nearly as robust as what Spotify offers and requires users to have a $24.99 a year subscription to iTunes Match if they don’t want to listen to ads.

Really, it’s those social networking features, particularly community created playlists, that make Spotify so much better than iTunes Radio and far better than the services Google and Microsoft are offering. At $9.99 a month, a premium subscription for the Spotify for iPhone and iPad app is a much better idea for big music lovers. That way they can build a large music library and listen to whatever song they want without ads or interference.

Downloading Spotify for iPhone, iPad, and Android is absolutely free and grants users a free week-long subscription. Users who subscribe online are treated to a month of the service at absolutely no charge. For now, Windows Phone users are required to sign up for the service before streaming on that device. Students can get a premium subscription for Spotify for iPhone for just $4.99.

19 Comments

19 Comments

  1. Troy

    07/30/2014 at 1:16 pm

    You are promoting a business that uses forceful and aggressive advertising practices. The fact that people are ok with that shows how well controlled society is by media. Good luck scrubbing the brown off your nose.

    • Justin wanke

      10/12/2014 at 12:31 am

      Hey mate, thanks for review, so you don’t recommend it? Just keep your iTunes library on iPhone 👍

  2. Tom

    08/07/2014 at 10:12 am

    Forceful and aggressive? I must have missed the part where you were forced to download and use Spotify. In any event, you can pay and avoid all that advertising hassle, or you can use the “free” version and pay by listening to ads. You know. Like on the radio.

  3. R Lif

    09/09/2014 at 6:55 am

    For the free version, I found the inane repetitive advertisements intolerable after a few days. Too bad I can’t afford the premium upgrade.

  4. Vic

    10/12/2014 at 7:47 pm

    U guys sux my radio dose not play!
    And it pissis me off.

  5. shawn

    11/08/2014 at 8:46 am

    Troy must still buy cd’s…. dork

  6. Lisa

    02/14/2015 at 4:23 am

    I still use CDs and my iPod
    And now may try spotify!

  7. Anne

    04/13/2015 at 12:19 am

    I’ve been getting charged twice every month even though I canceled my subscription!! You can’t call and talk to anyone only by email

  8. NEHAL 9999 345 780497 797987598 QQ2487321134

    04/28/2015 at 8:08 pm

    I LIKE SPOTIFY BUT UNLEES YOU PAY THE PREMIUM PRICE IT IS OS HARD TO USE.

  9. matt

    06/23/2015 at 6:53 pm

    I am currently using a spotify trial, 99 cents for three months and im loving it. The free version isnt worth much.

  10. Tigger McClaren

    06/27/2015 at 7:53 am

    Spotify is unnecessary. Too many sheep. THINK PEOPLE……THINK!

    • Bunny Lamb

      10/06/2015 at 12:55 am

      Tigger, please elaborate on how to make it obsolete. And, can the music be saved to the sd card, to be used after canceling spotify?

  11. Mr Blade

    12/31/2015 at 6:10 pm

    Just received notification that my free 6 month premium subscription ends in a week, which is what brought me here as I search and review the options available. The 6 months free has fulfilled its intended purpose leaving me hopelessly hooked, suffering extreme anxiety at the thought of my life without Spotify. I will continue the search for the sake of due diligence, even though I feel I’ve no choice. Only Spotify can bring relief to my addiction.

  12. badrerootunixitconnect

    01/18/2016 at 3:25 am

    well

    i don’t understand why i should subscribe to a music service like Spotfy or deezer and give my money and give informations like my email or phone number to be used for commercial things ????

    there is so many music service that are free and they ask for nothing ex:

    musica : play music you love (availble only on andoid )
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tyolar.inc.musica

    with Musica :
    • Play any song, any time on any device—mobile, tablet.
    • Enjoy amazing sound quality.
    • Listen and discover new favourites music.
    • Enjoy all your artists albums and track, no limits.
    • playlists based on your taste
    • Search for an albums or artist and launch songs
    • Listen to playlist, or Create your own as many as you like
    •Smart recommendations based on your taste
    • Play any artist, album, or playlist on shuffle mode
    • Listen to your music wherever you are using WiFi or data

    and it’s free and no email or phone number are request to subscribe

    in fact there is no subscribe .

  13. Tarn

    03/08/2016 at 12:03 am

    Why can’t I play my music offline and why do my playlist don’t map across to my iPad? My share facilities are ON. 2 most important things I wanted

  14. Jovita R. Luchana

    03/28/2016 at 6:10 am

    I want to cancel my subscription, how can I possibly do that?

  15. Bill Dunleavy

    05/08/2016 at 1:46 am

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE Premium program for Spotiy. I have been a long-time Rhapsody customer and it all got way too expensive! My only desire would be to have the ability to slam mix (radio mix) the tracks WITHOUT the fade out/fade in. Can we get that feature added? Otherwise, my opinion, there is not, by far, a better streaming service!

  16. Bella Artista

    06/06/2016 at 5:10 pm

    Wow, #Spotify seriously has the worst customer support ever. I was offered a $0.99 cent three month trial but when I tried to accept it, I was prompted that I don’t qualify, yet my 0.99 was still put into pending on my credit card. When I spoke to them about taking the pending off and fixing that glitch in their system they proceeded to blame me and my bank. First trying to say I didn’t have sufficient funds, but when I send screen shots showing it wasn’t that, they would email me with some other accusation. This went on for 5 emails until I just went off on them. Do not attempt to use Spotify. They will rip you off then blame you for their flaws.

  17. Gabba

    07/19/2016 at 10:43 am

    I appreciate that this article is over two years old, however I find it sad that there is no mention to whether the artists themselves get any reward from my subscription.

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