Spotify.pngSpotify is trying to boost its subscriber numbers with a holiday promotion that lets customers test drive the service at a minimal monthly cost. The new holiday promotion is available now and offers three months of Spotify Premium for just 99 cents.

Spotify Premium is the company's top-tier plan that allows users to download music for offline use, stream while on their mobile devices, and listen without the interruption of advertisements. With Spotify Premium regularly priced at $9.99 per month, the promotion significantly drops the price for new and existing users who have never subscribed to the Premium plan or previously used a free trial. Customers can sign up for the promotion through December 31, allowing holiday gift recipients to take advantage of this offer.

Spotify is a leading streaming music service with more than 12.5 million paying subscribers and 50 million active users. The music service joins Pandora as the top two music apps in the iOS App Store by revenue, beating out Apple's Beats Music, which slips into the third spot. To boost its position, Apple reportedly is planning to overhaul the Beats Music service early next year with a fresh new look integrating into iTunes branding and reduced pricing that may cut the cost of the service in half to as little as $5 per month.

Top Rated Comments

macintologist Avatar
135 months ago
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to own my music.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WordMasterRice Avatar
135 months ago
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to own my music.

I don't think it has much to do with fashioned-ness if you will, but more to do with your listening habits. If I were to buy everything that I have listened to on Spotify I'd have spent $10,000+. That's a lifetime of spotify subscription.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
135 months ago
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to own my music.
I won't call you old fashioned, but I will say that owning music is bad for the artists that you listen to most often, and probably for you too, if you listen to more than ~7700 tracks during your life.

How it hurts you:
For $10K, you could either buy 7752 tracks, or you could listen on Spotify for 83 years. If you won't want to listen to that many tracks over that many years, then you're better off buying the tracks / albums individually. If you will be listening to that many or more, then you should get Spotify.

How it hurts your favorite artists:
If you stream a track more than 70 times in your life, you have given that artist more for that track, in streaming revenue, then you would have by having bought that track. You don't have to listen to the track very often. Just once every 14 months or so.

How it rewards artists you don't like:
If you buy a track and listen to it fewer than 70 times in your life, you have given that artist more for that track than if you had streamed it.

IE, if you get a song stuck in your head, buy it, listen to it 20 times in one day, then get sick of it and throw it away, you have given that artist the same amount no matter what, because you bought it. In contrast, the one that you listen to 200 times over several years? They get the exact same amount.

So you're not old fashioned. But you're wrong. You're rewarding people who don't deserve your money, failing to give it to the people you want to give it to, and just wasting your own money in general.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pubwvj Avatar
135 months ago
I detest these "Only To New Customer" deals. A business should be valuing its existing customers like gold and give them the best deals. That is how we do it and it pays back with customer loyalty over the decades. Existing customers are our bread and butter, their regular purchases pay the bills and help us grow. They give us predictability in our production flow. New customers are nice but I don't give them a better deal my old customers. Old customers get the best deals.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macintologist Avatar
135 months ago
I don't think it has much to do with fashioned-ness if you will, but more to do with your listening habits. If I were to buy everything that I have listened to on Spotify I'd have spent $10,000+. That's a lifetime of spotify subscription.
That's assuming that everyone actually buys music rather than borrowing it from friends or ripping CDs from the library.

----------

as I barely make it through a whole album let alone more than once nowadays streaming is more than welcome
Those aren't good albums. Good music doesn't get old very quickly. A great album can be listened to countless times.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacFather Avatar
135 months ago
Deleted.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Beyond iPhone 13 Better Triad

Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen

Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself. Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday April 15, 2025 7:37 am PDT by
The first iOS 19 beta is less than two months away, and there are already a handful of new features that are expected with the update. Apple should release the first iOS 19 beta to developers immediately following the WWDC 2025 keynote, which is scheduled for Monday, June 9. Following beta testing, the update should be released to the general public in September. Below, we recap the key...
CarPlay Hero

Apple Releases Wireless CarPlay Fix

Wednesday April 16, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
If you have been experiencing issues with wireless CarPlay in your vehicle lately, it was likely due to a software bug that has now been fixed. Apple released iOS 18.4.1 today, and the update's release notes say it "addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles." If wireless CarPlay was acting up for you, updating your iPhone to iOS 18.4.1 should...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Apple 2025 Thumb 1

10 Products Still Coming From Apple in 2025

Friday April 11, 2025 4:14 pm PDT by
Apple may have updated several iPads and Macs late last year and early this year, but there are still multiple new devices that we're looking forward to seeing in 2025. Most will come in September or October, but there could be a few surprises before then. We've rounded up a list of everything that we're still waiting to see from Apple in 2025. iPhone 17, 17 Air, and 17 Pro - We get...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.4.1 With Bug Fixes

Wednesday April 16, 2025 10:11 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4.1 and iPadOS 18.4.1, minor updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that came out last September. iOS 18.4.1 and iPadOS 18.4.1 come two weeks after the launch of iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. There have been complaints about ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iPhone 6s MacRumors YouTube

Apple Says These Products Are Now Vintage

Tuesday April 15, 2025 9:53 am PDT by
Apple today updated its vintage products list to add the 2018 Mac mini and the iPhone 6s, devices that will get more limited service and repairs now that they are considered vintage. The iPhone 6s initially launched in 2015, but Apple kept it around as a low-cost device until 2018, which is why it is only now being added to the vintage list. The iPhone 6s had Apple's A9 chip, and it was...