People who love music will know what Spotify is. It is a large music streaming service with over 80 million songs in its catalog. Users can easily find old music and also discover new ones on the music streaming service.

The beauty of music comes from listening to it how you want, anytime you want, and without interruption. And the only way to do this on Spotify is to open a Spotify Premium account or upgrade your Spotify free account to a premium one.

So, this brings us to the article's topic: How much does Spotify Premium cost? How much is Spotify per month? Which subscription will be best for you? This article will discuss the different Spotify plans, their costs, and how they work. We'll also see the difference between Spotify and one of its biggest competitors, Apple music.

Ready to find out? Keep on reading!

Spotify Free plan

Spotify users commonly listen to music with the free plan, as Spotify has over 400 million users and just about 180 million subscribers. This shows that a larger percentage of the Spotify audience are free users.

However, with the free plan, you have to deal with ads between music and podcast listening. Also, you won't be able to enjoy offline downloads or unlimited skips (free users only get to skip songs or albums six times per hour).

If you don't mind ads in between listening, you can listen to anything you want on the mobile, web, or desktop Spotify app. You can also use compatible smart TVs, speakers, earbuds, and gaming consoles to amplify your listening.

Basic search and play options, including the capacity to repeat recent albums, subscribe to podcasts, and more, are offered.

The audio quality for streaming songs with a free Spotify account is 96 kilobits per second at a maximum of 160 kilobits per second which is poor compared to the premium audio quality, which streams at 320 kilobits per second.

When using the Spotify app on a mobile device, a free Spotify account can't play a full album as a premium Spotify user can. The default setting is shuffle mode, and the only way to come around this to play songs in order is when you use a web player or tablet.

However, you can't use other options like rewind or repeat. While the free service is more than sufficient for casual listeners, many users might find the reoccurring ads, constrained shuffles, limited skips, and sound quality annoying.

But how much is Spotify a month? You will get details about the different Spotify Premium plans and their benefits below.

Spotify Premium Plans

We can all agree that we don't appreciate interruptions between music or podcasts; likewise, no Spotify free users enjoy ads that ruin their playlists and album flow.

Also, waiting at the end of the ads to continue listening to their music is frustrating. This is why Spotify puts the premium version in place. However, it comes at a cost!

To accommodate everyone, Spotify has different plans that users can choose from. These plans offer almost the same benefits with different prices and access.

Aside from the free plan, Spotify has four other plans, referred to as the premium plans, and they include Individual, Duo, Student, and Family plans.

The general Spotify premium benefits include the following:

Ad-free listening
Unlimited skips
Download for offline listening
Good sound quality

Spotify Premium for Individuals

The Spotify Individual plan is one of the premium plans Spotify offers. And just like the name implies, only one person can access the Spotify premium benefits after payment.

How much is Spotify Premium for an individual? The subscription to the Spotify Individual Premium plan costs $10.99 per month. With this amount, you can fully access all the benefits of using a premium account.

For the individual plan, new users can enjoy a three months free trial before their billing cycle starts. Within this duration, they will enjoy the Spotify Premium benefits for three months and save about $30.

The benefits that come with the Spotify Individual Premium plan include the following:

Ad-free music listening: No interruptions while listening to your playlists or albums
Download for offline listening is available
On-demand playback
Unlimited skips

Spotify Duo Premium Plan

The duo plan is another premium plan on Spotify. But unlike the individual plan, it's a discounted plan for couples or two people staying together under one roof.

How much is Spotify Premium Duo? The duo plan costs $14.99 per month. This means each Duo subscriber is paying $7.5 instead of the actual individual plan that goes for $10.99, thus saving $3.49 each.

With the duo plan, each individual can access their premium account without having to share their login details. Each person using the duo plan can access their saved music and playlist individually.

Aside from the general Spotify premium benefits, individuals in a Duo plan can access the Duo mix feature, whereby both individuals create a playlist based on each other's music preferences with amazing sharing options for couples, siblings, and best friends.

Both users in the Duo plan can also share playlists while they build their libraries. What's more? Both users can receive individual Spotify dashboards with features like collaborative playlists.

The collaborative playlist features allow Duo users to edit, add to, and blend playlists that combine collaborative playlists and Spotify's personalization to automatically blend each user's musical preferences in a shareable playlist.

New or free Spotify users can enjoy a one-month free trial before their billing cycle starts. Users with a premium account can also switch to the Spotify Duo plan. However, they won't be able to enjoy the Spotify Duo free trial.

To use the Spotify Duo plan, you should note the following steps:

Only one of the duo needs to sign up for the Spotify Duo plan using an existing or new account.
You can use WhatsApp or email to invite a household member to the Duo plan. Whichever is more convenient for you.
Once the other person accepts the invitation at home and verifies their address, both users can enjoy the Spotify Duo plan.

Spotify Premium Plan for Students

Students are not excluded from the Spotify Premium plans. Students who use Spotify can get a student premium package at a discounted rate.

How much is Spotify Premium Student? The Student premium plan costs $5.99 monthly and offers a 50% discount, access to all Spotify premium benefits, and more.

What's more? You get SHOWTIME, which costs $11.99 per month, and a Hulu subscription, which costs $ 7.99 per month, in the Spotify student premium package. Hence, you save about $20 per month with the same fee.

To continue using Hulu and SHOWTIME, you must sign up as a student again after a year, or Spotify will have to deny you access to your Hulu and SHOWTIME subscriptions and begin to bill you for the full price of Premium membership.

To access Spotify's Student Premium plan, students must provide a legitimate identification card and a valid email address.

A student who wants to access the Spotify premium plan must be in a college or University. Since Spotify's student premium discount is only offered to students enrolled at an accredited higher education institution, only students in universities or colleges are eligible for the plan.

Spotify Premium Plan for Family

If you're all about sharing music with your family, the Spotify Family plan is a good one to try. The Spotify family plan allows up to six users on one account.

Spotify Family plan costs $16.99 per month, which would have cost $66 separately for six accounts. The Spotify Family Premium includes a family mix and different parental control features. They also have Spotify Kids; a separate app made just for kids.

Parents don't have to worry about their children unintentionally streaming explicit music because Spotify Kids includes kid-friendly tracks. Parents can always create playlists for the kids so they can only listen to what you want them to listen to.

For Spotify's family account to exist, there must be a plan manager that can add other family members. A family member has to be the plan manager whose responsibility is to initiate the family plan, manage the account, and make the payment on everyone's behalf.

To summarise, in addition to the general Spotify Premium benefits, the Spotify family premium offers the following features:

Six premium accounts in one
Family mix
Spotify kids
Ability to block explicit content for kids

Spotify vs. Apple Music

Spotify and Apple Music are big forces in the music streaming service, and both have unique features. Spotify's biggest competitor is Apple Music.

Unlike Apple Music, Spotify offers a free, ad-supported version of its service. The pricing feature for Spotify and Apple music is pretty similar, but Apple Music does not offer a free streaming service like Spotify.

Apple music's Individual plan goes for $10.99 per month, same as Spotify, which is also $10.99 per month. However, Apple Music doesn't offer a duo plan, but Spotify does. The students' package for Apple Music is $5.99 per month, and Family Plan goes for $16.99 per month, just as for Spotify as well. How much is Apple Music? Click to find out all the details!

The slighlty difference is that Spotify offers more artists that you can listen to.
The music library of both streaming services has quite a difference as Apple music has over 100 million songs in its catalog, while Spotify boasts over 80 million songs in its music catalog.

Regarding audio quality, Apple Music is now ALAC-encoded with resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD quality) to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality).

On the other hand, Spotify streams music in Ogg Vorbis format at 96kbps, 160kbps, and 320kbps. Compared to Apple Music, Spotify's sound quality could do better.