Frequently asked questions

About Spotify

What is Spotify?

Spotify offers you legal and free access to a huge library of music. All you need to do is create an account and download our streaming music player. For more details have a look at our video or introduction page.

What is your goal?

Our dream is to let everyone listen to whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want.

Do I need to pay to use Spotify?

No, the advertising-funded version of Spotify is free of charge, however, for now it requires that you receive an invite to register unless you are in the UK. Visit our invitation page to sign up to the waiting list. Alternatively, you can pay for an ad-free premium subscription to Spotify.

Can I download or buy music in Spotify?

We have links on a large number of albums and tracks that you can click to purchase mp3’s from our download partner. To purchase tracks right click on the track or album (control click on Mac OS) and select “Buy From”. Downloading is currently only available in the UK, France and Spain.

How much advertising will I be exposed to?

There should be significantly fewer ads in Spotify than you’d find on commercial radio. We are trying to strike a balance between artists who want to be paid and providing the best possible user experience.

Is paying for Spotify online safe?

Yes, Spotify’s payment partners are PCI-certified, which is the global industry standard ensuring compliance to strict security and data protection standards.

Using Spotify

What bandwidth does Spotify need?

We recommend 256 kbit/s. Spotify usually works well on a 3G connection. Plenty of free disk space also helps keep the network requirements down as it enables more caching.

Why do I have to install Spotify?

By installing Spotify as a stand alone application you get a much better user experience and audio quality compared to web-based sites.

On what platforms can I use Spotify?

Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Windows XP or later. You can also run Spotify in Wine on Linux.

Can I use Spotify from multiple locations?

Yes, you can install Spotify on as many computers as you like. You may be logged in to Spotify from several computers simultaneously, but you can only play music on one computer at a time. The music at your other computers will automatically be paused. If you want to install Spotify on more than one computer simply download the program again and login with your existing username and password, there is no need for an invite token.

Can I share music with my friends?

Yes, you can drag and drop any track, album, artist or playlist to your email or instant messenger which creates a link to your favorites that you can send to your loved ones. They need to have Spotify to listen, though. Read more about sharing and collaborative playlists in our blog.

Why do you have two different link formats?

The spotify: URIs are the real Spotify addresses. The http://open.spotify.com/ URLs are a workaround to give you clickable, blue and underlined links in instant-messenger and email applications that don’t yet recognize the Spotify URI format. When there is a choice (such as when you are creating your own hyperlinks on the web), always use the spotify: addresses. What happens when you click an http://open.spotify.com/ link is that a page is opened in your web browser that redirects you to the real address (the spotify: equivalent). When you have control over the links, that’s a redundant step. And if you’re a software developer, please consider auto-detecting the spotify: URIs in your applications.

Can I make more advanced searches?

Yes, you can search for genres by writing genre: followed by the genre you want to find, like genre:Trip-hop. You can do the same thing with release years for albums by writing year: and the year you want. You can even specify a range, like year:1979-1982. Other searches to play with are artist:, album: and track:. There are some more examples in this blog post.

How much disk space does Spotify use?

Spotify stores data on your computer in order to minimize the use of bandwidth. The exact amount varies, but Spotify will automatically try to free your computer resources so that you don’t run low on disk space. The exact size can be configured in Spotify preferences.

Are there any keyboard shortcuts?

Yes, see the list of keyboard shortcuts.

What happens if I cancel my premium subscription?

If you purchased a Spotify premium subscription and then decide to cancel, your account will automatically revert to a Spotify free account after that month’s subscription period expires. You can find out more about Spotify’s paid for services in our Terms & Conditions.

What quality does Spotify stream in?

We use the Ogg Vorbis q5 codec which streams at approximately 160kb/s. Premium subscribers can enable higher bit rate streaming at 320 kb/s from the preferences menu.

What countries is Spotify available in?

Spotify is currently available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain. We hope to launch in more countries in the future.

When will Spotify Free be available in my country?

At this time we don’t know when we may launch in more countries.

I don’t have a Spotify account, can I buy a day pass?

Day passes can only be purchased by Spotify Free users. If you don’t have an account at all you can purchase a Spotify Premium account.

Why does Spotify use so many internet connections?

Spotify uses a peer-to-peer network along with streaming servers to stream music. This is why you see multiple connections to other Spotify users.

When will Spotify be available on my mobile phone or other platforms?

This is a very popular question and it’s something we are interested in. We are currently working with various different platforms to make Spotify mobile but do not have a time line when we may release something. Keep an eye on our blog for all the latest news about mobile and other developments.

Can I use Spotify to play music in my bar, restaurant, store, etc?

No, the Terms & Conditions that you agree to when registering for Spotify states that Spotify is for personal, non-commercial use.

Can I stream Spotify music to speakers with Airport, Logitech Squeeze box, Sonos, etc?

Currently there is no built-in support for this but some of our users have found ways to make is possible. For more info read here about Apple Airport and Logitech Squeezebox.

Can I scrobble the music I play to Last.fm?

Yes, Spotify has built in support for last.fm that can be enabled from the preferences menu. For more details have a look at this blog post.

How do I get new invites?

Getting invites is one of the benefits of being a Premium subscriber in one of the countries where Spotify Free is available. You receive two new invitations each time your Premium account is renewed (yearly or monthly, depending on your payment method).

Problems

My friend said he would send me an invite, but I haven’t received it. Why is that?

First, check your spam/junk mail folder. If it’s not hiding in there, you could try asking your friend to send you the invite token manually. To do this he should cut and paste the invite token (the long string of letters and numbers, not the invite email) from the invite page and send it to you by IM or email.

I have forgotten my password or username. Can you help me?

You can request a password reset, as long as you remember either the username or the email address you have supplied.

What should I do if something goes wrong while Spotify tries to update itself?

Probably the easiest thing to do is to download and reinstall Spotify!

I can’t find a track, album or artist I’m looking for?

In the future we aim to have all the worlds music available, however, we are currently in beta and are updating our catalogue so it’s possible that you won’t be able to find some of your favorite artists or tracks. We are working really hard to grow our catalogue as quickly as possible by constantly adding new content so you can get more and more music. Unfortunately some artists have opted not to be added to Spotify at this time, some frequently requested artists that are not in Spotify include Metallica, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, ACDC and Led Zeppelin, etc.

I signed up for a premium account but still hear ads?

If you’ve purchased a premium subscription or day pass you may need log out of your Spotify account and log back in to activate the purchase and get rid of the ads.

You should also check to ensure that your premium account is still active, if you’ve changed your credit card or used a virtual card it’s possible that your automatic renewal was not processed. Check your subscription status to ensure that you are still a premium member and update your card details if necessary.

What should I do if I find a bug?

It would be nice if you could report it to us, the best way to do that is to visit our forum and leave a message with as much details as possible as to what the bug is, how it occurred and a little bit about you computer setup.

Music fast-forwards or jumps ahead when I play it, what can I do? (Windows Only)

To solve this problem enable Hardware Acceleration in the system preferences by going to Edit -> Preferences -> and unchecking “Enable hardware acceleration”.

I can’t log in to Spotify, it says the update failed?

When an update fails please uninstall Spotify and then download and install the latest version from our website.