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Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- PCWorld reports that Spotify offers a hidden “Basic” tier launched in mid-2024 for $10.99/month, providing music-only streaming without audiobooks or lossless audio.
- This plan requires existing Premium subscribers to downgrade and isn’t available to all users, making it difficult to access.
- The Basic tier includes ad-free music, offline listening, and flexible playback, but once canceled, users cannot re-subscribe to this potentially phased-out option.
Annoyed by Spotify’s latest price hike? You can always dodge the increase by switching to a competing streamer, but if you’d rather stick to Spotify, there’s another option: a cheaper but well-hidden music-only tier.
Spotify’s Basic plans aren’t new—they were first announced in mid 2024—but they’re easy to forget and even harder to spot, given that they’re buried at the bottom of Spotify’s Premium plan listings. And you can’t sign up for this service tier as a new user.
For a small monthly savings versus Spotify’s Premium plans, the Basic tier gives you almost all of the same features, including ad-free access to Spotify’s massive catalog of tunes, offline listening, and the ability to play tracks in any order you wish.
The biggest difference between Spotify’s Premium and Basic plans comes down to audiobooks. While Spotify Premium tiers include 15 hours of audiobook listening (either for individual subscribers or for the “manager” of a Family or Duo plan), the Basic plan is just for music.
Another difference between the Basic and Premium plans is that only the latter offers lossless music streaming, while Basic members must make do with lossy “high-quality” streaming.
We’ve established that Spotify Basic is cheaper than Spotify Premium, but how much cheaper?
At its launch in June 2024, an individual Basic plan cost $10.99 a month, which was a buck cheaper than the $11.99 monthly charge for Premium Individual at the time. (Earlier this week, Spotify announced across-the-board price hikes for its Premium plans, with the individual tier going up to $12.99 a month.)
OK, so is the Basic Individual plan still $10.99 a month? We’re checking on that (Spotify doesn’t reveal Basic tier pricing on its website), and we’ll update this story once we get the official details.
Spotify also lists Basic Duo and Basic Family plans on its support site, but again, no prices are listed. We’ve reached out for those details as well.
Then there’s the process of signing up for a Basic plan. You can’t just go to Spotify.com and sign up for Basic as a new user; instead, you must be a Spotify Premium subscriber first, and then you’ll only find the Basic option by downgrading your existing plan—maybe.
According to Spotify’s support page, only “eligible” Spotify subscribers will see the Basic tier as an option when attempting to switch plans, meaning some Premium members may not see the Basic plan at all. What makes you eligible for Basic? We’re checking that.
Finally, Spotify notes that if you do manage to sign up for a Basic plan but subsequently cancel, you can never go back.
That’s the type of condition typically attached to a grandfathered plan that’s being phased out, although a peek at the Wayback Machine reveals the proviso has been there since at least early 2025. (Again, we’ve asked Spotify about it.)
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, TechHive
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben’s articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men’s Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master’s degree in English literature.
