5 ways I save money on Spotify

Streaming, music, food boxes and other subscription services have been taking huge hits due to the cost of living crisis. Viewed as ‘non-essential’ purchases, many of us are downgrading or cancelling our subscriptions as the monthly bills increase.

As a Deals Writer, I’m always on the lookout for the best deals and discounts across all departments and in an effort to help T3 readers keep their costs down, I’ve been sharing some of my top money-saving tips. I’ve extensively covered how to save money on streaming services so now, I’m shifting towards music app subscriptions, specifically Spotify.

Spotify is the most popular music streaming platform of all time. Its subscribers have full access to millions of songs, albums, podcasts, new releases and more. One of the big attractions of Spotify is Spotify Wrapped, where it looks at your activity from the year and shows you what and who you listened to the most.

While Spotify does have a free option, Spotify Premium is the paid version, with prices starting at £9.99 a month. This fee is higher than some streaming services – Amazon Prime and Disney+ are both £7.99 – but Spotify Premium offers no ads, unlimited skips, offline listening and more.

If you’re already a Spotify subscriber or you’re looking to sign up to Spotify Premium, here are 5 ways to save money on Spotify.

1. Consider which Premium account you want

My first tip is to have a look at the Spotify Premium plans available and decide what’s best for you and your listening habits. There are 4 Spotify Premium plans available: Individual, Duo, Family and Student.

The very basic Spotify Premium subscription is the Individual Plan which is £9.99 / $9.99 a month. If you’re going to be the only one using this subscription, this is the plan for you and it offers ad-free music, on-demand playback and offline listening – this is available for all plans from here on. The Duo Plan is £13.99 / $13.99 and comes with 2 Premium accounts. The Family Plan is £16.99 / $16.99 and offers up to 6 accounts on the same bill, and allows you to block explicit music and gives access to a separate Spotify Kids app. Finally, the Student Plan is £5.99 / $5.99 and is a special discount for university students.

If you live with people, I’d definitely recommend signing up for either the Duo and Family plans as you can get multiple users on the same account and you can split the bill between you each month so you’re paying less. However, if you’re going to be the only person using it, go for the Individual Plan and try to find some special offers – more on this below. 

2. Look out for Spotify special offers

Spotify has some of the best music app subscription deals which change and update each month. These deals are mostly available to new Spotify users and come in the form of extended free trial periods. For example, if you’re a new Spotify user, you can sign up to Spotify Premium today and get 3 months of Premium listening and benefits for free. This offer is for the Individual and Student plans and ends on the 11th September 2022, so you won’t have to pay until November/December. These deals come and go so make sure you check the Spotify website for monthly or seasonal offers.

3. Sign up for Entertainment plans with Vodafone & PayPal

One of my biggest tips is to always double check if any streaming or music app subscriptions are included in broadband, mobile or TV plans as you can save loads of money and keep all your apps in one place and under one bill.

Like a lot of streaming apps, Spotify Premium is often included in contracts when you buy a new phone or sign up to a new service. For example, Vodafone offers Entertainment bundles and packages included in their mobile plans. The Entertainment Plan from Vodafone offers Spotify Premium, YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime when you buy a new phone or SIM. Similarly, if you sign up with PayPal, you get 3 months of Spotify Premium for free.

4. Take advantage of the free trial periods

Who doesn’t like to try before they buy? Many music app subscriptions offer a free trial period so you can check out the features and catalogue before you start paying. Spotify has some of the longest trial periods. As mentioned above, the Individual Plan has a 3 month free trial for a limited time, and the Duo, Family and Student plans all come with 1 month free trials. If you’re interested in Spotify Premium, I’d suggest trying it out for free for the full month before you sign up. Once your free trial comes to an end, you can decide whether or not you want to pay for it, plus you can cancel your Spotify Premium subscription at any time.

5. Cancel your subscription and use Spotify for free

If you’ve read my guide on how to save money on YouTube Premium, you will have seen this tip already but it’s worth mentioning again for Spotify. There is a free version of Spotify that you can sign up to so if you really want to save some money or you don’t feel you use your Spotify Premium account enough, I’d consider cancelling it and using it for free. Of course, you’ll have to listen to some ads and you’ll have a limited number of skips but you won’t have to pay which is always a good way to save some extra cash each month.