Spotify Officially Available in India but Don’t Buy the Subscription

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So, After a long period of time, Music fans in India are ready to experience one of the Best Music Streaming services, Spotify, here in India. For those who have no idea about Spotify, Spotify is a Music Streaming Service just like Amazon Music, Gaana, Saavn, etc. but Spotify has much more than just music. Spotify is a Whole experience.

Comparing to any other Music Streaming service, there is a significant difference in the Streaming Quality of Spotify. Spotify at its best quality setting streams music at 320 KBPS which is the best possible audio quality to stream compressed music files. The original songs are recorded in a .wav format which is really really heavy files and impossible to stream but has THE BEST audio quality. To experience that audio quality, you do need Professional Headphones or a sound system. The compressed .mp3 files in 320 KBPS are the best audio quality that is provided by Spotify.

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Spotify in India: Pricing

Spotify is a latecomer in the Indian Music Streaming business but we cannot blame Spotify for that. There is a lot of Legal Paperwork that goes along when you are trying to bring all the record labels and Music publisher’s catalog on the same platform that too to a different country.

Of course, you can listen to Spotify for free but for the premium features, which are worth the price, you need to pay as per your convenience. Spotify is following pretty competitive pricing for Indian users. The pricing of Spotify starts from Rs.7/day. You can access the premium features of Spotify for 1 day at just Rs.7 which no other Music service is providing as of now. Seems like Spotify is pretty confident about their experience.

So monthly plan starts from Rs.119/month where Apple Music provides you a 1-month Subscription for Rs.120. If you are a student, Spotify is providing additional discounts. The students will get a monthly subscription to Spotify for Rs.59/ month. You can also get a family plan if you need more than 1 or 2 accounts.

The Spotify Pricing is pretty legit and definitely worth it. But should you get the Spotify Subscription in India?

Why You Should Not Buy the Spotify Subscription in India?

I am using Spotify for the last 5 Years using IPVanish VPN. Hands down, Spotify is my favorite music streaming service. Period. But why I am not suggesting you to buy Spotify Subscription in India.

Here is the answer.

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I loved Spotify because I have Spotify’s US Account. I am accessing music that is available for US users. In the US, there is a wide range of music artists and album libraries available to stream because there are no legal issues regarding the record labels.

But here in India, Spotify is facing a lawsuit filed by Warner Music Group. That is why, big music artists including Linkin Park, Coldplay, Grandson, Ed Sheeran, Twenty One Pilots etc. are not available to stream in India. That means you cannot stream music by Linkin Park or Coldplay or Ed Sheeran because of legal procedures that Spotify is facing right now.

UPDATE: The situation is better now. Most of the international bands, artists are not available on Spotify India.

According to the report by Times of India, Bombay High-Court allows Spotify to launch in India after depositing of Rs. 6.5 crores to HC and because Spotify is already late in Indian Market, Spotify took prompt action and at least, launched the service here in India.

There are a lot of licensing discussions happening between Spotify and Warner Music Group but both fail to agree on the common terms. Resulting, Warner Music Group had asked an Indian court to block Spotify from being able to play music from its catalog on the streaming service. Read the full Story on The Verge.

Spotify is a great platform to explore international music but with lawsuits and Copyright claims, ultimately it is the user who is going to affect. When I tried to change my country from the US to India, I noticed that a lot of songs in my playlist are no more available to stream.

If you wanted to change your Country from India to the US, you need to connect through VPN and then change the Country from ‘Account Settings’.

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The artists that I came across were Linkin Park, Coldplay, Grandson, David Guetta, Twenty One Pilot, Mike Shinoda, James Blunt, Mike Posner, Hollywood Undead, KSHMR, etc. If you listen to OST, let me tell you, Interstellar’s OST is also not available. See Screenshots below.

UPDATE: Most of the artists mentioned above are now available on Spotify India. Some OST are still not available though.

That is the only reason I am suggesting everyone in India not to buy the subscription as of now. Spotify is no doubt one of the Leading Music Streaming services but Music services without our favorite artists doesn’t make any sense to me.

Wait for few more days, till then Explore Spotify for free. If you wanted to use the US version of Spotify, here is how you can use Spotify with Complete Music Access.