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Spotify is one of the largest and most popular music streaming services in the world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s legal. In this article, we reveal whether you are on the safe side legally when listening to songs on Spotify and whether the service is really free.
Is Spotify legal? Here’s the legal situation
First, the good news: Spotify is completely legal. The music streaming service has reached an agreement with GEMA and all other rights holders and is therefore authorized to stream the songs.
- Spotify pays for the music rights of the individual artists. So you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the music without any worries.
- However, the extent to which the music streaming service is subject to a fee, or how expensive the music enjoyment will be, depends on your personal requirements.
Free Spotify – the different music plans
Spotify offers a total of five different plans, which incur different costs.
- The cheapest option is the free subscription. Here, you don’t pay any money, but you get lower sound quality and ads between songs. You also cannot download songs to listen to offline.
- The individual Spotify Premium plan costs €12.99 per month. In return, you get 320 kbps sound quality and no ads. You can also listen to songs offline.
- The student plan offers the same benefits as the Premium plan, but costs only $6.99 per month. To enjoy these benefits for a year, you must provide proof of student status and verify your identity annually.
- The Spotify Family plan costs €21.99. It includes the same conditions as the Premium service. The only exception is that with the Spotify Family plan, five other family members can use the music streaming service free of charge in addition to the main subscriber.
- Under the same conditions as the Family subscription, there is also the Duo plan: if you live at the same address, two people can listen to music for €17.99 per month.
- Tip: You can try Spotify’s paid premium offers free of charge for one month. After that, a one-month cancellation period always applies.
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