19-05-2021

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Third-party Spotify apps. One “hack” that seems popular is downloading an app which claims to give Spotify Premium for free. Supposedly all you have to do is download the app and then you’ll have access to all the music you want for free. Unfortunately, most of these “free” apps come loaded with viruses. The spotify app automatically assumes which facebook account I want to login to and does not have any visible option to manually enter a spotify account. My facebook tied to my phone does not have premium or my playlists for spotify.

Music fans are plenty familiar with Spotify, the online streaming service that lets users listen to millions of songs on-demand for free or with a no-advertisement subscription.

However, with Spotify’s myriad settings and apps that extend its functionality, you might not be using it to its full potential. Here, TIME rounds up 8 tips that will help users see Spotify in a whole new light:

Hide Your Guilty Pleasures From Friends

The ability to follow friends’ musical habits is one of Spotify’s best features. But maybe you don’t want everyone to know exactly how many times you listened to “All About That Bass” this summer.

On the desktop version, you can select “Private Session” from the main Spotify menu to stop broadcasting your musical selections for a certain period (the same setting is found on the “social” menu within settings on the mobile version). To permanently stop sharing your listening choices, go to the “Spotify” menu, then “Preferences,” and uncheck the boxes for “Share my activity and what I listen to with my followers on Spotify” and “Share my activity and what I listen to on Facebook.”

Improve Your Search Queries

Navigating Spotify’s massive catalogue can be a chore. Next time, try using qualifiers to narrow your search. They work much in the same way as Google search queries. You can specify searches based on artist, title, genre or year. So if you’re looking for just Jay-Z’s output in 1997, “Jay-Z year:1997” to pull up the desired results. Here’s a full list of the search qualifiers you can use on Spotify.

READ MORE Spotify Now Makes Playlists Based On What Your Friends Listen To

Use Folders to Organize Your Music

One criticism of Spotify is that people’s music collections often devolve into a jumble of playlists and favorites songs. Consider using folders to provide more order for your playlists. On the desktop app, go to “File” and then “New Playlist Folder” to create a new folder. Then you can place any playlists you like within the new folder.

Toggle High-Quality Streaming On or Off

Spotify Premium users have the option to enable “high-quality streaming” from the Preferences menu on the desktop, which plays songs at a bitrate of 320 kbps rather than the standard rate of 160 kbps — making everything sound better.

On mobile, songs automatically play at a lower bitrate of 96 kbps to conserve data. All users can bump that figure up to 160 kbps, and premium users can also use the 320 kbps setting. Just be careful, since a higher bitrate will eat into your mobile data plan faster.

Add Songs That Aren’t on Spotify And Listen to Them Offline

Spotify’s catalogue is hardly comprehensive, but users can easily add songs from outside sources to their libraries and listen to them within the Spotify interface. Simply go to Preferences and enable showing tracks from local sources. Those sources can include iTunes, the Downloads folder on your computer, or specific folders that you select.

Even better, if you have a playlist filled with non-Spotify songs and toggle on the “Available Offline” option at the top of the playlist, you can download the songs to your phone for offline listening.

See the Lyrics to Every Song

Trying to prep for your next karaoke session? Turn on the musiXmatch app (you can find it in the “App Finder” tab on the left-hand sidebar) and you can see the lyrics of most songs as they’re playing within Spotify. There are lots of other handy apps in the “App Finer” menu, including recommendation apps that offer features like curated music lists from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone.

READ MORE 6 Biggest Tech Debuts to Watch in 2015

Add a Visualizer

If you miss the cheesy visualizers from your days using Windows Media Player or Winamp, Spotify has you covered. In the search bar, just type in “spotify:app:visualizer” to bring up a range of different visual options that will play in time with your tunes.

Link to a Specific Part of a Song

Want to send a friend “Free Bird,” but skip the pretenses and get right to the guitar solo? Spotify makes that pretty simple. If you’re sharing the URL of a song (a special kind of Spotify-specific link that only works within the Spotify app), add a “#” sound to the end of the character string and then the timestamp you want to zoom to. To get to the “Free Bird” solo at 4 minutes and 25 seconds into the song, for example, you’d write this: spotify:track:1xt1TX045OgURfw0MAcVNF#4:25.

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EDIT POST

If you’ve been wondering how to get Spotify Premium for free, or at least for cheap, we found a lot of ways to save money while listening to great music.

Aaccording to Forbes, it has twice as many users as Apple Music, and it’s no wonder why.

While there are a lot of services and sites to download music for free, Spotify has one of the biggest selections of music and artsiest.

It offers a huge variety of music which can be streamed anywhere at any time.

However, many users have been trying to “hack” the system by searching for illegitimate ways to get Spotify Premium for free.

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Below, we have listed the legit ways to get it.

We also explored the not so illegitimate hacks and why they don’t work.

Legitimate options

Here are ways to get Spotify Premium for cheap that actually work:

1. Get 3 months of Premium for $0.99

Spotify is running a $0.99 promotion until June 30th.

For three months you will get Spotify Premium for only $0.99.

After that, the price goes back to the regular $9.99 but you can cancel the subscription at any time.

2. Spotify Premium almost half off with a student discount

Did you know there is a Spotify Premium student discount?

If you have a college or university email that ends with “.edu” then you can get Spotify Premium for at a discount.

For 12 months, they will only charge you 5.99 instead of the regular $9.99 price.

By the way, that .edu email address can come in handy when it comes to getting student discounts so be sure to take advantage of it.

3. Share a Spotify Premium Family Plan

If you know other people that are interested in getting a Spotify Premium account, you can save money by sharing a Spotify Premium Family Plan.

The family plan costs $15 a month and you can have up to six different people using the account.

When you split the cost amongst everyone, you only spend $2.50 month.

Spotify won’t split the bill for you, so you’ll have to make sure you collect the money from everyone each month. However, that minor annoyance is worth the savings.

Best Spotify Apps

4. Spotify Premium discount via PlayStation

If you have a PlayStation and the PlayStation Plus service, then Spotify has a special deal for you.

If you sign up for Spotify Premium through your PlayStation, you’ll get your first two months for just $2.

In the Sonos app, please choose 'Add Music Services' from the 'Music' pane, select 'Spotify', and then click 'Next'. (Make sure Control Sonos from Spotify is turned on the Settings). Choose 'I already have an account' and click 'Next' to enter your login details to allow Sonos. Using spotify with sonos. Thanks- I guess I could plug a Chromecast in- it's just a bit of a shock when your 12 moth Spotify Premium that came with the Sonos as a gift expires and you suddenly have 3 Play 1 speakers that don't connect to Spotify free (and are not powerful to Airplay too)- so still usable but I guess I'll front up for the family package on Spotify. As the most popular paid streaming music service, free user has no authority to download music as local files, but there is a solution available to make the Spotify music as local files, then you can easily play Spotify music on Sonos Speakers.

After that, the price goes back up to the regular $9.99 a month.

5. Free Spotify Premium for Starbucks employees

If you work at Starbucks, you might be eligible to receive Spotify Premium for free.

Starbucks offers the service for free for over 200,000 of its employees. To see if you are eligible, visit here.

6. Check for Partnerships between other companies

In the past year, more companies have been partnering with Spotify to provide special perks to its Premium members.

For example, T-mobile has special plans that allow you to stream the app without using any data.

Check with your internet or cell phone provider to see if they have any discounts for Spotify Premium.

Scams, Illegal Ways, and Hacks

Spotify revealed that about two million users are using hacks and tricks to get around advertisements shown on free versions of Spotify accounts, according to Reuters.

Many users don’t realize the dangers that can come from using hacks.

In some cases, as seen below, these hacks can end up costing you a lot more money than you would have saved from a free Spotify Premium account.

7. Change your date on your phone “hack”

Many people claim that if you change the date on your phone a few years back, it will extend your 30-day free trial to however many days you went back.

However, this can badly mess up your smartphone. Most apps on smartphones rely on the phone’s internal clock.

When you change the date, your phone will become overrun with error messages.

This can:

  • Slow your phone down
  • Become annoying to use your phone
  • Cause data corruption if left too long

Doing this hack might end up costing you money to get your phone fixed. In the end, you might spend more than you saved on the Spotify Premium trials.

8. Third-party Spotify apps

One “hack” that seems popular is downloading an app which claims to give Spotify Premium for free. Supposedly all you have to do is download the app and then you’ll have access to all the music you want for free.

Unfortunately, most of these “free” apps come loaded with viruses. These viruses can spread from your phone to your tablet and computer.

Different Spotify Apps App

Often, these apps will run background applications which can steal your saved passwords and even record everything you type.

This can be especially bad if you log into your bank account on your phone.

9. Free Spotify Premium codes

Some websites claim to have free codes for Spotify Premium.

However, they have a catch.

They usually require you to download an application that will supposedly generate the code onto your computer.

Not only do these applications give fake codes, but they can:

  • Install spyware onto your computer
  • Give viruses to your computer
  • Steal information liked stored passwords and usernames
  • Collect data to be illegally sold to third-party companies

Closing Thoughts

Spotify Premium is a great service that can provide entertainment and music at a low cost. However, on your search to get Spotify Premium for free, it’s important to be safe and not get scammed.

Have you tried any of these methods?

Or have you tried any other ways to get Spotify premium for free or cheap?

Let us and our readers know in the comments below what your experience was. Gift card spotify premium free.