It’s back: Spotify re-released a limited-time offer for folks who have never signed up for the service or have been content to hang out on the free, ad-supported tier. Starting Wednesday, May 15, you can get the full Premium tier, with all of its bells and whistles, for $1 per month for three months. Afterward, regular prices will take effect, but it’s still a low-cost way to explore everything a Premium membership has to offer while giving you plenty of time to make up your mind. The deal expires on June 30, so if you act soon, you can get an entire summer’s worth of uninterrupted music for just $3.
The special offer is only for people who are on the free tier and have never signed up for one of the paid plans. If you had previously been a paying subscriber but canceled your subscription before April 15, Spotify has a deal for you, too: Sign up again and you can get your first three months for $10, a $20 savings over the usual $10 per month fee for Spotify Premium.
The Premium subscription has a number of benefits over the free tier, including ad-free streaming, unlimited song skips, higher-quality audio, the ability to download songs to your phone or tablet for offline listening, plus full integration with Sonos.
This new (or renewed) offer, which is available in all of Spotify’s markets, comes at an interesting time. Globally, the company is on an absolute tear, with more than 100 million paying subscribers, and it’s been able to generate a profit for the past few quarters — something it has struggled to do since its inception. Yet, in the U.S., it still lags behind Apple Music, and that must be a source of frustration. It’s also about to see increased competition from both Amazon and Google, as both of these companies have added free tiers to their music services for their respective smart speakers, designed to lure new listeners into paying subscriptions.
Spotify is working hard to make sure its platform delivers more than just music, as it ramps up its podcast efforts, and has started to experiment with new features like the ability to block artists, and Storyline, a Snapchat Stories-like carousel of images and text, chosen by the artist to complement their music.
The $1 for three months of Spotify Premium offer is now a bi-annual event, so if you decide not to take advantage this time, your next opportunity will be around the holidays.
