Music is therapy for a great many people. There are scores of people I imagine cannot live a day without their music. And that is very much normal too. I consider myself an avid listener of music. I am usually up 17 hours a day and in those hours I spend around 12 hours with music on. The only time I am not listening to music from any of my devices is when I am in class, in meetings, at family meals, at gatherings etc. And I know this is the norm for many other people as well. Though I have to say it is not just about music, it is more about what I use to access my music and how that player gets me. That player is Spotify.
Spotify is the world’s most popular streaming service, famed for its super-intuitive music recommendations and great playlists. It’s a fantastic place to discover brand new music – and loyal fans can keep up-to-date with what their favorite superstar artists are releasing next.
You will find millions of songs from various genres and artists: obscure indie rock, top 40 pop, movie soundtracks, and classical music. It also has a complex algorithm to recommend music based on your listening history, as well as curated playlists and internet radio stations.
Podcasts are just as plentiful, so whether you love listening to true crime stories or tech discussions, there is something for everyone. The company is investing heavily in podcast content, purchasing podcasting networks Gimlet Media and Parcast. It even dropped over $100 million on an exclusive multi-year deal with the Joe Rogan Experience.
Why you should download and sign up for Spotify
If you are not already signed up for Spotify I hope the reasons I will bring here convince you to sign up.
- Spotify is free
The basic, ad-supported version of Spotify is entirely free. It offers unlimited access to the full catalogue of music and podcasts, with only a few drawbacks.
The most intrusive are frequent ad breaks, usually, after 5 songs and the ads are 30 seconds long. These can kill your groove if you’re listening at a party. You’re also limited to just a few song skips, six in an hour to be exact, and audio quality is slightly lower at 160 kbit/s but this is not an issue because the pirated music you’re listening to right now is much lower.
However, you should not let this in any way deter your thirst for quality music. Spotify has a premium version which to be honest you can access if you wanted to. Spotify prices vary per region, my guess is that’s because they want to capture a lot of new listeners. In the US, music lovers have to part ways with only $9.99/month, in Zimbabwe where I am writing from, Spotify Premium is only $2.99/month and after a subscription, the first month is free. Spotify Premium unlocks all the perks of your music tastes, unlimited skips, downloading your music to local storage, offline use, the ability to connect up to 6 devices under one account and more.
- Top of the class recommendation algorithm
One of the reasons that made me look into Spotify way back in 2018 at the time when it was blocked in Zimbabwe was because I needed a music player that got me. A player that will categorize my music based on my taste, mood etc. The truth is you can collect just enough music into your phone or computer before you run out of artists’ names you can think of or storage in your devices.
With Spotify, you don’t have to worry about that. Spotify has a top-notch recommendation algorithm that recommends music you may be interested in based on what you’re listening to. It also categorizes music by mood if that’s your type of thing. You can find groovy, sad, happy, homework mode, workout mode, heartbreak, really anything in all music genres regardless of what gets your groove on. Yes, you can find all your ZimDancehall and AmaPiano tracks.
- You can get anything music, and more
I don’t know if you know this but in this day and age artists release their music digitally instead of the conventional CD/DVD route. Spotify and Apple Music are the two leading music streaming platforms that artists use to release their music. Whatever your taste, rest assured your favorite artist or band has all their music on Spotify. So what are you waiting for?
You don’t believe me? Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? As of November 2022, Taylor Swift has the most monthly listeners on Spotify for female artists, and The Weeknd has the most monthly listeners on Spotify for male artists. Ed Sheeran is the most-followed male artist with 100.3 million followers, and Ariana Grande is the most-followed female artist with 81.7 million followers.
If that’s not enough, here is a fact, 433 million unique users out there are using Spotify.
Not only do you find all your music by your favorite artist on Spotify, but you find more than that. Spotify is home to podcasts of whatever nature tickles your taste buds. You can find a wide range of content from tech-centered podcasts such as Darknet Diaries, and The Machine Learning Guide to knowledge-centred podcasts such as Naval, The Knowledge Project, Think Fast Talk Fast and many more on whatever subject of your liking.
- You can listen to your downloaded music
It is understandable there may be times you need access to the internet to stream your favorite jams. Not to worry. Spotify Premium grants you the option to download music to your local storage to listen to whenever you are off the grid.
There is more, you may have music that you got from other platforms, downloaded or otherwise stored on your local device you can listen to using the Spotify application. Just click on the Settings icon within Spotify and toggle under Local Files, Show audio files from this device. And voila!
- Sleek User Interface
Spotify’s algorithm is way better than any other music streaming platform, including Apple Music. Spotify constantly experiments with its interface, adding unique features every time, making it quite interesting, simple and user-friendly. They also have a ‘Data Saver’ mode that will reduce your data usage by 75 per cent. Have I got your attention yet?
An average user of the messaging platform WhatsApp consumes around 1GB of data in a single month, that’s a lot of data for messaging, calls and viewing thousands of statuses from friends, family and colleagues. An avid lover of music will go for a month of listening to music at an average of 10 hrs/day for no more than 250 megabytes of data. Still not a worthy investment?
- Your favorite artist earns a living when you use Spotify.
Back in the year 2018, I had an epiphany. I was in my first year of college studying IT with hopes of getting into tech as a Software Developer and today I am finally one. The epiphany I had was, how would I feel if I built an incredible software that solves some pertinent problem and then I find someone using a cracked version of my software without paying for it? At the end of the day, creators have to earn a living from their craft. Musicians are creators who keep us entertained, their music unites us, makes us bond, brings us ever closer together, makes us fall in love and much more. When you download music from the internet you may not be aware that you are committing a crime and also cheating on your favorite musicians. When you use Spotify, the tables turn, and your superstars get to make money when you listen to their music.
Spotify generally pays between $.003 and $.005 per stream, meaning every time you listen to a track by your favorite superstar that’s how much they will be paid. Spotify also has a Royalties program for artists. Royalties are the payments that an artist earns from streams. Spotify royalties are specifically distributed from the net revenue collected from ads and Premium subscription fees.
Artists are paid monthly. When Spotify pays artists, they tally the total number of streams for each of an artist’s songs and determine who owns each song and who distributes it.
I hope I was able to convince you to come to the brighter side and look into Spotify and have even more fun with your music.
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