Surprise! I’ve been using Spotify Premium since February!
Before April 8, going to the Spotify website would give you a “Spotify is not available in your country” message (unless you’re using a proxy of course). Well, not anymore! Spotify officially launches in the Philippines today, at 11:00 AM with Premium Access for PHP 129.00 a month payable via credit card or PayPal. The soft launch done by Coca Cola Philippines gives you access to the desktop versions of Spotify. Today, you can now download the Spotify app from the local iTunes store and the Google Play Store.
Links:
In terms of song library, so far I’ve been able to find every single International track save for the ‘Happy / Get Lucky’ mashup of Pomplamoose that’s actually fairly new. In terms of local tracks, it is still very limited. Well, they have Chicser. LOL! But seriously, I have a rather eclectic taste in music from 70’s folk to Prodigy, from Motown to Electro Swing. My favorite playlist I’ve shared thus far is titled “Tegan + Sara + Wilson + Phillips.” Because the latter is the former’s reincarnation. For parents, Spotify is a boon. I can build a comprehensive playlist of kiddie songs with ease.
With Premium Access, Spotify allows you to choose from 3 stream qualities:
Normal 96kbit/s
High 160kbit/s
Extreme 320 kbit/s
Unless you’re an audiophile playing on a really good set of speakers, normal will do. The file sizes are also much smaller and easier to stream with local telcos. Speaking of syncing, you are able to synchronize songs via 3G and save them for offline play.
Because Spotify is finally legit on mobile, it goes hand-in-hand with Shazam — you know, that app you use to listen to music you hear while shopping at Old Navy or Uniqlo — helping you identify every single hipster song on the planet. Launch Shazam, tap on ‘Listen’ and once the song gets identified, open it directly on Spotify and save it permanently to your “Department Store Music” playlist.
In the two screenshots below, I ran Shazam and listened to whatever was playing on the radio and after it identified the song, there was a link to run Spotify so you can save the song into your playlist.
OK so what does Premium Access get you? For P129 a month you get to save songs for offline listening, you don’t hear ads and you can search for any song. The free accounts are ad supported, does not support offline listening (Spotify will stop buffering when you lose your data connection). In the US, Spotify costs USD $9.99 a month. Here it is about USD $3.00 only. Not bad.
Last. Did I mention that Spotify is time-sensitive? On Fridays, it compiles TGIF playlists. On Sundays, it winds you down for work the following day. It gets you up for your morning jog and gives you ambient music for your yoga.
To recap:
· To sign-up for Spotify, just go to www.spotify.com
· Monthly Spotify Premium subscription fee is PHP129 a month via credit card / PayPal on their website
· Official FB Page: www.fb.com/SpotifyPhilippines
· Official Twitter Account: @Spotify_PH
This is what the checkout looks like for premium access:
My wishlist:
· That it wasn’t so dependent on Facebook for personalization
· More extensive local albums
· An easier way to add friends who are NOT on Facebook. ProTip: Type spotify:user:username where the username is your friend’s username to add them up. Do this on the search bar of your app.
Disclaimer: Spotify Regional gave me a free Premium Access Pass to feature the local launch. Opinions are mine. I am not affiliated with Spotify nor their local partners.
