Hey guys,
Quick tip for any of you Spotify members out there. For those of you who don’t know Spotify is a music streaming service through which you have access to millions of songs and albums from your favorite arists. Unless you like the Beatles… Sorry Beatles fans. Anyways, Spotify is rad it’s basically the Netflix of music and with more options. If you’re content with only listening to music on your computer then you would be looking at their “Unlimited” $4.99 a month plan. However, if you’re like me and you want your music on the go then the “Premium” $9.99 a month plan allows you to listen on your phone, tablet, computer, etc.
One of the downsides however is Spotify doesn’t have any “shared” or “family” plan style setups so simultaneous streaming “isn’t an option.” Let me explain. Let’s say Bethany is listening to music on her way to school. She’s singing her little heart out, little does she know on my way to work I just started streaming some of that sweet hip hop I’m prone to listen to. Unfortunately, once my sweet jams start hers end with a message saying “Spotify has been paused because your account is used somewhere else.” She yellse “Bryce!!!!!!” starts her music again and then my sweet jams stop right in the middle of my favorite song. What ever can we do!? It’s really not that difficult and has worked very well for us.
First off what we don’t want to do is setup multiple accounts for each of us. In order to do that we would have to take however many people are in your family (ours is 2), multiply that number by $4.99 or $9.99 (we pay $9.99) and you have your monthly payments for Spotify ($20). Maybe that sounds reasonable to you but, thanks to my mom, I’m a penny pincher and I’d prefer cheaper. Here’s what Bethany and I do and it works out well but does require a little planning on one persons part.
- Download the app onto each of your phones
- Login with the same account info user: xxxxxx password: xxxxx
- Once you login all of your shared playlists will load. (At this point you can both stream music but not simultaneously.)
- One of you, the most willing to sacrifice for your family, can proceed to the next steps
- Open up your favorite playlists for me that’s (Andy Mineo, The Format, All Sons & Daughters, Workout and the Civil Wars)
- Tap “Available Offline” (iOs) or “Download” (Android). It’s also a good idea to set Download over 2G/3G to off in Settings, so it only syncs over WiFi.
- Eventually you’re playlists will download to you device which will and will have a green accent on them.
- Now go into settings > music > playback (iOs) and settings (Android) and enable offline mode.
- All playlists you have downloaded will remain available all others will be greyed out and disabled until you go back online.
- It is now possible for two people to listen to music simultaneously* note: This process music be done for every person in the family aside from the one who is streaming content.
This is not a perfect solution for large families, but if you have a family of three or less and don’t mind expending a little effort and planning it’s a good solution. Spotify does have some safeguards in place so you can’t just do this with everyone. They are:
- You can sync a maximum of 3,333 tracks on up to three devices
- You can keep your device in ‘offline mode’ for 30 days at the time.
Overall, this works perfectly for us and I’m never without music. Offline playlists save on data usage as well so if you’re hitting that cap every month try out offline playlists in Spotify. Download at home on wifi and have your music when you want without the extra charges. Do you have a better solution for this then me? let me know I’d love to try it!
God Bless,
Bryce
