Spotify Music Platform is one of the most popular streaming services in the world. And by far, it’s the second most popular audio streaming service next to Pandora and the like. It pretty much has it all! From the biggest artists of today and yesterday — to the indie artists. As a matter of fact, it’s the only platform even your cool cousin Kanye West has heard of.
It’s a digital music, podcast, and video streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs and other content from artists worldwide. As of October 2019, the company had 248 million monthly active users, including 113 million paying subscribers. Unlike the case in physical or download sales — which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold.
So, as for Spotify, it pays royalties based on the number of artists’ streams and as a proportion of the total songs streamed. It distributes approximately 70% of total revenue to rights holders. In return, they then pay artists based on their individual agreements. The best thing is that it’s readily available on most modern devices, Windows, macOS, Linux computers, etc.
As well as iOS, Android smartphones, and even tablets. It’s available in most parts of Asia, Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. That said, in this guide, you are going to learn all about Spotify, how it works, how artists can make money on the platform, plus a few chops to use it freely. So, that you can enjoy nonstop music in the comfort of your confines.
Understanding What Spotify Is All About
Just as we aforementioned, Spotify is a digital music, podcast, and video service that gives you access to millions of songs and other content from creators all over the world. Basic functions such as playing music are totally free, but you can also choose to upgrade to Spotify Premium. Spotify only gives access to music and podcasts through its collection of applications.
When Spotify Music Platform first built its streaming service in 2006, cloud computing was only just getting started inside Amazon and other related brands. Of course, long before Google or anyone else really got into the game. And therefore, back then, it didn’t make sense for a company like Spotify to run a live streaming service in the cloud.
“For a while, we couldn’t get the quality, the reliability, the price out of cloud services that we needed,” says Nicholas Harteau. The Spotify Music vice president of engineering oversees the company’s underlying infrastructure. But now, he says, Spotify can get all that from the cloud.
According to Harteau, the company has already moved about 250,000 user accounts. Eventually, out of 20 million subscribers and about 55 million additional users onto Google’s cloud services. And it plans on moving its entire service within the next 18 months.
How The Free Nonstop Music Streaming Application Works
Spotify Technology S.A. is a European American media-services provider which is based in Luxembourg. Founded in 2006 in Sweden, the company’s primary business is its audio streaming platform. The platform provides DRM-protected music and podcasts from record labels and media companies. Launched on October 7, 2008, it provides access to over 50 million tracks.
Whereby, users can browse by parameters such as artist, album, or genre, and can create, edit, and share playlists. And as a freemium service, basic features are free with advertisements or automatic music videos. While, at the same time, additional features, such as improved streaming quality, are offered through its paid subscriptions plan for interested parties.
Uniquely, its licensing means there’s no way to export Spotify content outside of the application shells. Fortunately, whether you have Premium or not, you can easily and quickly access a variety of music collections through Spotify.
You also enjoy these key benefits:
- Get recommendations based on your taste
- Build collections of music and podcasts
- And more!
That aside, getting started with listening to nonstop music on Spotify is very easy.
The simple steps to get you there:
- Visit the Spotify website and sign-up. We’d recommend signing up with Facebook if you have an account as it’ll make it easier to find and follow friends, see what they’re listening to, and share songs with them.
- Choose a subscription level. We’d recommend going for Spotify Premium as it gives you access to more features, is more flexible, and will connect with more devices.
- Download and install the free Spotify application. There are versions for desktop and iPhone/iPad and Android phones.
- Sign into your account on those devices and get listening.
In a nutshell, the basic setup is pretty straightforward, yes, but there’s much more to Spotify once you delve in and it gets smarter the more you listen.
Can You Download Music From The Spotify App?
Well, this is both a Yes and No. For instance, with Spotify Premium you can set music to be available “offline” but it’s not the same as downloading music in the traditional sense. For example, you can’t try to game the system by downloading an album and then canceling your subscription at a later date. And you can’t download the tracks to burn them to a CD either.
Or rather, copy them to other devices. The idea of Spotify’s offline mode is to allow you to have access to your favorite music when you’re trying to save mobile data or traveling somewhere where access to the internet might not be easy. With Spotify Premium you can have up to 10,000 songs available to listen to offline on up to five different devices.
Downloading songs, albums, or playlists on Spotify is quite simple — which is great. Just switch the toggle next to Download on the album you’d like to download to listen offline. Alternatively, click the three dots in the top right and click “Download”. The amount of data that Spotify burns through will depend on the streaming quality you choose — more on this in a minute.
This is roughly how much data will get through:
- One hour of music playback will use around 50MB of data when the quality is set to “normal”.
- At normal quality, you can play around 24 hours of music for around 1GB of data usage.
- High-quality 1GB will be used in less than 15 hours.
- At extreme quality, you’ll use 1GB of data in 7 hours.
- You’ll use a lot more data with video playback.
You can check and change the quality of streaming and downloading of songs using mobile data in the settings on your device.
Its Music Collection Key Features For Your To Know
On the contrary, you don’t need to tie Spotify down to just one device. You can download the app on all sorts of computers, phones, and tablets. But, first, you should check out their system requirements to see if yours is compatible. Eventually, what we like more about it is that you can also play Spotify on the games console, on your audio speakers, TVs, etc.
As well as on your smartwatches, in the car, and on other devices. On the other hand, for more devices they support, you can check out their music everywhere products category. You can also find out how to simply send your music to different devices using Spotify Connect or Bluetooth in detail. Keeping in mind, their basic functions such as playing music are totally free.
It’s, important to realize, that there are four different levels of streaming quality for Spotify. Streaming is all done in the Ogg Vorbis format and uses the following bitrates for each of the quality levels.
Consider the following:
- Low at 24kbps
- Normal streams at 96kbps
- High at 160kbps
- Very High streams at 320kbps
The quality level you use will depend on your preference and choices around data usage but it’s worth noting that Very High is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers. Also with the web player, Spotify free users only get access to 128kbit/s quality vs 256kbit/s for premium users.
Forthwith, you can also choose to upgrade to enjoy other added gems and benefits that Spotify has in store for its premium subscribers. Either way, you can choose what you want to listen to with Browse and Search and build your music collections. Or even see what your friends, your favorite artists, and notable celebrities listen to as you’ll learn more in this video guide:
Not forgetting, you can also create your own Radio stations. As well as get recommendations for more personalized features. Such as Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daily Mix. And, if you have a Premium account, you can download music and podcasts for offline listening on up to 5 devices at a time. Furthermore, if you want to download music on a 6th device;
You have the following options:
- First, before you download to the additional device, manually remove a device from your account’s offline devices list
- This is important since the tracks on this device will no longer be downloaded for offline listening
- Secondly, consider when you download it to an additional device
- Obviously, this is because devices with the earliest downloads will be automatically removed from your account’s offline devices list
- And, therefore, the tracks on this device will no longer be downloaded for offline listening.
Spotify is immediately appealing because you can access content for free by simply signing up using an email address or by connecting with Facebook. If you’re not keen on monthly subscription fees for Spotify Premium or just want to dip your toe in and test it out, it’s easy to get started and there’s no commitment. So, which are the Spotify Plans for premium subscribers?
Well, to enumerate, with the Spotify Platform, it’s easy to find the right music or podcast for every moment. May it be on your phone, your computer, your tablet, and even more. After all, there are millions of tracks and episodes on Spotify.
Related Resource: 12 Best Free Music Platforms To Monetize Streams & Sell Online!
So, whether you’re behind the wheel, working out, partying, or relaxing, the right music or podcast is always at your fingertips. In addition to that, you’ll choose what you want to listen to, or even let Spotify surprise you. That said, if you’ve never tried Premium before, you can try it for free. Not to mention, Spotify is available across a range of devices.
Including computers, phones, tablets, speakers, TVs, and cars. And then again, you can easily transition from one device to another with Connect by Spotify. You can download and listen to Spotify for free, or choose one of their premium plans below:
| Platform Offers | Spotify Free | Spotify Premium |
| Access to over 50 million songs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Access to podcasts and audiobooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Travel abroad with your music | For up to 14 days. | ✓ |
| Pick and play any track on mobile | Available on select playlists. | ✓ |
| No ad interruptions | ✓ | |
| Listen without an internet connection | ✓ | |
| Highest music quality | ✓ |
NB: You can find out the main differences between Spotify Free and Premium in a separate feature but as a quick summary, the free version is ad-supported, much like radio stations. The free version of Spotify can be accessed on a PC, laptop, and mobile phone, but the full service needs a Spotify Premium subscription.
Moving on, it’s also clear to note that you can also browse through the collections of friends, artists, and celebrities. Or even create a radio station and just sit back. While also, soundtracking all your life with Spotify Music through subscriptions or even free listening.
Spotify Premium Plans Are:
- Individual Premium: This is for one person and you’ll get all the features mentioned above.
- Student Discount: This is for one person currently enrolled at an accredited college or university.
- Premium Family: For up to 6 Premium accounts for people living together.
- Family Mix: A playlist based on the tastes of everyone on your plan.
In addition to the above-mentioned Premium Plans, for the Premium Student Discount, you’ll get 50% off a Premium subscription. And up to 4 years at a discounted rate. Whereby, you can renew every 12 months (up to 3 times) if you’re still eligible at the end of the year. As well as access to a Hulu ad-supported plan and SHOWTIME for no extra cost.
Related Topic: Best Online Music Streams | How To Get Started Easily!
And as for Premium Family, you’ll get up to 6 Premium accounts, for one discounted price. The Family Mix Plan allows you to have a playlist based on the tastes of everyone on your plan. With Parental Control of explicit music for the members of your plan. Basically, a decade ago, the Swedish startup built its seminal streaming music service from the ground up.
More so, atop a small number of machines inside a Scandinavian data center. Before expanding across this facility and into data centers in the United Kingdom and the US. Now, Spotify has resolved to move its entire service out of these data centers and onto cloud computing services operated by Google. For more personalized support, ask their Community for help.
How To Download The Spotify Music Application
Markedly, when you download the app, Spotify gives you instant access to millions of songs – from old favorites to the latest hits. All you’ll need is just hit play to stream anything you like. Now that in addition, the platform works easily on your computer, mobile, tablet, and TV. And obviously, since it offers unlimited, ad-free music, it means No more annoying ads at all!
And also, No more interruptions. It’s just music! As soon as you download Spotify music, you can as well listen offline. Whereby, you’ll keep playing, even when you don’t have a connection. But, premium sounds better, therefore, get ready for incredible sound quality. If only you’ll download the desktop (Windows) version and start creating your music collection right away.
Learn More: Spotify Moves Itself Onto Google’s Cloud—Lucky for Google
However, if your download didn’t start right away, you’ll need to try again – using these Setup files. Still, if you’ll have more issues, you can simply visit the Microsoft Store to download it. Forthwith, you can now log in and listen to music on as many devices as you like. Without needing to change any settings.
But, please note that you can only play on one device at a time. Bearing in mind, if you begin playing on another device, playback on the original device is paused. And above all, if you’d like to share Premium with others, you can check out Premium for Family for more guidelines.
Takeaway;
Before we conclude, what Harteau will say is that Spotify finally decided to embrace cloud computing. Obviously, greater market competition has significantly reduced the cost of running software in this way. “The competition … is pretty hot,” he says. “Amazon and Google are going at each other pretty hard on pricing.” And, he adds, both of those companies are quite creative.
But, they operate at a scale that Spotify never could in its own data centers, which drives prices down even further. And by doing so, “They can leverage the economies of scale in ways that would be pretty difficult for us.” If you move onto a cloud service, you’re still paying a premium. “Nobody is running a cloud business as a charity,” says Aditya Agarwal.
Not forgetting, he is the vice president of engineering at Dropbox, which has used Amazon’s cloud services for a nearly decade. After all, “There is some margin somewhere.” And indeed, some businesses run operations where paying that premium doesn’t make sense. But, there’s a point where the cost-versus-convenience math of moving to the cloud does make sense.
In reality, businesses are reaching that point earlier than ever. All thanks to the stiff competition among the likes of Amazon, Google, and others. Spotify has reached that point. And it won’t be the last. So, what’s your take on Spotify? Have you given it a try yet? Do you think it’s a music listening, streaming, and downloading application worth a shot? Well, let us know!
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