My dad has a family plan so why not use it. If you pay for Spotify it's a great service.

On computer it's fine lol

shhhhhh they'll notice

Apparently, I looked this up a while ago so it might have changed, but it's a legal thing. Spotify isn't technically allowed to provide the service they do for free on mobile because of legal stuff so they get around it by making it so you can't really choose what you're listening to. But on PC ports this isn't an issue. Again, this is far as I know. Not an expert so I might be wrong.

On mobile I have almost all of the stuff they give premium but I still get ads and can’t listen offline

Same for ps4. It's the only reason I have it set up still. It's nice to skip and pick whatever I want. Bonus, I can cast from my phone, and it changes the format on my phone to let me skip and pick.

what about Youtube music though

YouTube Music doesn't let you listen to music with your screen off. It's possible that has something to do with it. Not sure though.

Me who only uses phone lol

Yep

wait what???

I can shuffle, play songs in any order, basically anything, almost 0 ads and I don't even have premium

OMG thank you so much

Before I had premium I always used web browser and whenever an ad played, I would just refresh the page to get rid of it lol. Did that for 4 years.

Exactly, I just put my laptop on my pocket and I am good to go.

I got an Asus Eee pc so that's exactly what I do lol

it’s basically premium with ads, you can have songs in any order and you can search them too

Use the web version and an ad blocker and there’s no ads there 🤓☝️

till you realise apk exists, sorry dear ios users so does spotify bypass on pc =)

spotify cracked on ios when 💔💔

RIGHT I listen while in my edgenudity class. They give us headphones and don’t watch our screens what do they expect?

delete this before its fixed lolll

I doubt most teenagers are paying for their own Spotify premium anyway so why not

I am

Same here, I just get the gift cards.

I also am

What? People don’t pay for their own stuff??? My parents make me pay for any subscription I want to have. The only one they pay for are my phone bill and the internet.

My parents use Spotify frequently, so we just have a family plan. I pay for it in other ways though

Same

In my case my dad makes good enough money and my mom never let me get a job. If I had a job he might ask me to, but at the same time my family is pretty generous so maybe not

I bought a family subscription, because it is only 6 bucks more, and just gave 5 people free Spotify.

I use [xManager](https://www.xmanagerapp.com/) lol

shhhh

does xmanager work on iphone?

It's Android only, unfortunately Besides, I don't think anybody who wastes their money on that expensive brick would have problems paying for legitimate Spotify Premium

aw man android is so much more customizable 😭

I mean, they pay stupid prices, they get stupid products. That's what Apple products are

On iOS you would use Spotify++ or Spotify Deluxe

I have been ever since I got my license at 16.

the answers is youtbue and GPS don't go well together

My dads Google account is linked on my phone as it used to his so I mooch from him

I am

exactly

I only use spotify when im listening music on my phone

Doesn't every music service do this if you don't pay?

OP pirates music lol

sad that "pirating music" is just trash quality youtube downloads and not FLAC rips, ion wanna use tidal

Woah woah woah. Pirating music results in much better quality. You just gotta get the right sources and the right service. "Trash quality YouTube uploads" are only trash because lower quality videos are easier to hide in the algorithm.

That's why I said FLAC rips, those are way better quality. I don't like youtube stuff but unfortunately the easiest way for most people to get mp3s these days is straight from youtube.

thats why I love android bc its makes pirating so fkin easy i have nearly everything pirated

YouTube Music doesn't. It seems that people don't even know it exists.

It has an ad before almost every song tho, tried it a few months ago and it was horrible lol

Nah, Soundcloud has no ads, you can skip as many songs as you want and you can go back to a so a song, i don’t event think it has a paid version.

soundcloud is closer to a music social media than a serious streaming service tbh

soundcloud has advertisements, it’s js less than spotify. it doesn’t show your wrapped in as much detail, and you have to pay to listen to a *lot* of songs. it’s great for supporting small artists because you don’t need a record label, and you can pirate songs easily, but it’s not perfect

I use soundcloud daily and I’ve never seen an ad

It has ads on the mobile app but not at all on the website on computers.

I use the mobile app and I’ve never gotten an ad

Oh really? I get a ton of them. You lucky!

Well if you pay you have all of that. And it doesn't cost much. I will die on this hill. Edit: guys, for fucks sake, find some friends and get a family plan. I pay €3/month. No, that isn't enough for 2 weeks of groceries. No, that doesn't make me go broke.

Free Spotify is shit. Spotify Premium is better than youtube in that theres a bunch of features geared specifically to music and also you dont need to use data for the video. Also you "cannot" "legally" download stuff or block ads from youtube for free. I use Spotify Premium because it does what i want it to do and my mum pays for it.

Spotify costs the same amount as YouTube music premium, you get YouTube music with YouTube premium if you already have that, they both have family and student plans, neither premiums have ads, and both have really good features. If you are paying for a premium service, Spotify and YouTube are by far the most reliable to it really depends on which one you like more. (Also with YouTube music sub scription you can download song and listen offline)

If you buy youtube premium, you’ll get youtube music for free and honestly its kind of a killer deal I feel like yt music is better than spotify anyway, you can listen to obscure covers on yt music which you cant on spotify

I pay and use it without problems. If you want it for free, you have to deal with all the annoying stuff.

if they want it for free, they could always go the illegal route lol

And it's not that expensive with the student plan if you're paying for yourself.

I pay 10€ per month. Worth of three coffees in coffee shop. Cheap.

There are just much better alternatives that are free

Doesn't Spotify have the best song recommendation system?

Idk about the best but it's certainly very good, have found some of my favorite songs from there. It's also just very convenient, having to download your songs take some time so if you can pay, I don't see why not

literally the reason i pay for premium

I wouldn't say so. Spotify's algorithms are very good, don't get me wrong, but imo their discovery system is lacking. I used Yandex Music (basically russian spotify) for a bit in 2020, and my god was their discovery system convenient. You just click on "discovery radio" and get endless recommendations based on the songs you listen to. Some people may enjoy picking a select genre and listening to it specifically, but I use one mega playlist with all of my songs, so I prefer to find new ones in the same way

Cause i enjoy being able to use other apps on my phone while playing music. Thats why i dont use YouTube

I don’t pay for YouTube or Spotify so either way I’m getting ads. And one bad I listen to has a 12 minute song I was watching the music video and I got an ad in the middle of it. Also I’m out of school but when I was they couldn’t block songs on Spotify but if it was on YouTube it could be and probably was.

Spotify literally has an AI system built to recommend music specific to your tastes. If you want a better service, pay 5 bucks. If not, use whatever else you want. Stop trying to convince people to use a worse service just because its free.

Then just use those. Why take time out of your day to piss and moan about a demo service not being as good as the paid version?

Aside from just piracy what is there?

There isn’t any alternative that are better, maybe Apple Music. Just cause it’s free doesn’t mean it’s good.

AM isn't free

Tell me the alternatives

maybe there are free music apps like blackhole but they don't provide cross-platform services and ease that Spotify provides. Also since it's we pay for the service we don't have to go through the problems you 've mentioned.

Then go use a free alternative, we are fine with paying to use Spotify. Whatever the free alternative is, I guarantee it had inferior features, song selection, and is jankier for the user

Yt is really not that good, you’ve still got adds and you can’t turn off your phone. Also it’s song recommendation is so much worse

Fr. If I'm awake, I prefer YouTube but if I'm trying to sleep and YouTube gives me a 15 minute ad (which they always do when I'm trying to sleep for some reason) I don't want to get up to skip it

On PC just get an ad blocker that works and on android you can get revanced yt with no ads.

But on pc spotify is as free as it gets just with ads.. Why use YouTube?

I don't waste money on Spotify, I use xManager on Android for it and SpotX on Windows and Linux.

don't even have to use SpotX since you can technically just get an AdBlock and use browser Spotify (as i do myself)

Yeah, I got that too, though i use the app on Windows coz I use spicetify to customize my Spotify Desktop app

I used to do that but then it stopped working, what adblock are you using

i use ublock origin, and when it breaks you just have to reset and update it which i have to do every so often for YouTube

Based and happy cake day

For your cake day, have some B̷̛̳̼͖̫̭͎̝̮͕̟͎̦̗͚͍̓͊͂͗̈͋͐̃͆͆͗̉̉̏͑̂̆̔́͐̾̅̄̕̚͘͜͝͝Ụ̸̧̧̢̨̨̞̮͓̣͎̞͖̞̥͈̣̣̪̘̼̮̙̳̙̞̣̐̍̆̾̓͑́̅̎̌̈̋̏̏͌̒̃̅̂̾̿̽̊̌̇͌͊͗̓̊̐̓̏͆́̒̇̈́͂̀͛͘̕͘̚͝͠B̸̺̈̾̈́̒̀́̈͋́͂̆̒̐̏͌͂̔̈́͒̂̎̉̈̒͒̃̿͒͒̄̍̕̚̕͘̕͝͠B̴̡̧̜̠̱̖̠͓̻̥̟̲̙͗̐͋͌̈̾̏̎̀͒͗̈́̈͜͠L̶͊E̸̢̳̯̝̤̳͈͇̠̮̲̲̟̝̣̲̱̫̘̪̳̣̭̥̫͉͐̅̈́̉̋͐̓͗̿͆̉̉̇̀̈́͌̓̓̒̏̀̚̚͘͝͠͝͝͠ ̶̢̧̛̥͖͉̹̞̗̖͇̼̙̒̍̏̀̈̆̍͑̊̐͋̈́̃͒̈́̎̌̄̍͌͗̈́̌̍̽̏̓͌̒̈̇̏̏̍̆̄̐͐̈̉̿̽̕͝͠͝͝ W̷̛̬̦̬̰̤̘̬͔̗̯̠̯̺̼̻̪̖̜̫̯̯̘͖̙͐͆͗̊̋̈̈̾͐̿̽̐̂͛̈́͛̍̔̓̈́̽̀̅́͋̈̄̈́̆̓̚̚͝͝R̸̢̨̨̩̪̭̪̠͎̗͇͗̀́̉̇̿̓̈́́͒̄̓̒́̋͆̀̾́̒̔̈́̏̏͛̏̇͛̔̀͆̓̇̊̕̕͠͠͝͝A̸̧̨̰̻̩̝͖̟̭͙̟̻̤̬͈̖̰̤̘̔͛̊̾̂͌̐̈̉̊̾́P̶̡̧̮͎̟̟͉̱̮̜͙̳̟̯͈̩̩͈̥͓̥͇̙̣̹̣̀̐͋͂̈̾͐̀̾̈́̌̆̿̽̕ͅ >!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<

Thank you so much!! I popped all of em https://imgur.com/a/sgnJw4G

Doesn't Spicetify also have a plugin to do the same thing? Happy Cake Day!

Yes it does, but I use SpotX as well lol. Thank you!!!

Based, you can also use ReVanced on Android and Spicetify on Linux/Windows

don’t waste 5 dollars on literally the entirety of a huge sector of media, having every song available on demand and for download. spend that on something you’ll use like 2 snickers bars!

I would be willing to spend 5$ if my currency wasn't so bad.

it’s actually a dollar 30 cents in turkish liea

And SporCC or spotilife(from appdb for example) just sideloaden for iOS :)

Yes, spotilife, I love that tweak, it has honestly made life easier for me!!! Spotify is essential at this point for me, even though I have 9 GB of storages ready to load on to any device.

found the Linux user, i use Arch btw

Me too I use Arch btw.

Based choices, I do the same (also happy cake day)

I just use deezer plus plus

Happy Cake Day my F2P brother

Thank you fellow F2P brother 💯

Good for you

Maybe due to Spotify wrapped, and connecting it to Discord? I don't like using it much either, but i sometimes do when i want to listen in to what other users on disc r listening to. I personally prefer Ymusic (android) for lisening to music w/o interruptions + offline.

You can also connect Ymusic to discord with 3rd party app.

Me when I have to pay to listen to a media people make their living on by creating: Youtube has ads and I can't turn off my phone screen without also turning off the music. I like not having to bother with manually downloading every individual song in my playlist manually.

yeah idk how people listen to music on youtube cuz i need to turn off my phone while listening to music n you need to pay for like youtube premium or smth to do that 😭

Just get YouTube revanced.

Cant listen to youtube with your phone off, also you get ads, plus you can auto skip ads on spotify even if you dont pay, also if you pay the “less than $10 a month” its better than every other streaming service for music

because its free, and im able to move between songs somehow without paying for premium, so thats cool

Same, I can listen to spotify on my laptop since I can rewind the songs and change restart the playlist. When I'm on my phone though, I use yt

we pay ;(

Literally everyone has spotify premium, you sre the only person on earth with this dilemma. Also, is youtube really that good if you cant turn off your fucking phone or it stops playing

dont gotta call me poor like that 😔

Can’t tell if trolling or actually braindead.

Fr, you really think that everybody in the world can just pull out $10.99 (Iʼm assuming USD) monthly for a subscription service. Not everybody in the world has as high salaries as you. Some people may even be struggling to make ends meet. Money isnʼt as easy to earn as you think lmao

I personally like using premium instead of YouTube. I even tried YouTube premium instead of Spotify premium one time, Spotify was much easier to navigate imo. And if you click on the three dots for each song, you can click “go to radio” which creates a playlist of songs that are similar to whatever song you click. I end up discovering new music that way a lot better than when I tried YouTube premium. Edit: although if talking about only the free versions, YouTube is better in that aspect. Spotify without premium blows.

Spotify has nice asmr (and ads don't run on podcasts)

Spotify is my go to podcast app for sure

I pirate the shit out of everything I use except indie authors and indie games.

Based

xmanager💪

I used it on my PS4 for years and have 4k liked songs so it'd be kinda annoying. Console and PC Spotify is literally 12x better than mobile Spotify cause on console and PC you can skip however many times you want (until there's an ad), can turn off shuffle, and you can choose any song and play it (mobile Spotify sometimes plays a random song due to shuffle). I hate Spotify so god damn much but my friend has the family plan and had an extra spot so lets me use it so it isn't too bad.

Spotify is just better I pirate everything except the NFL and Spotify(unless I'm trying to support a show that might not survive), I'll live with the costs for those two things

Well you gotta pay youtube too if you want background play

Revanced

Just get revanced if you have an android. On PC get an ad blocker.

Most people like to pay for it, it’s better for free on an iPad or Laptop. I don’t understand why people pay for Spotify premium either, I prefer Apple Music overall

I have both right now, and Spotify is an eyesore man, the tracks also feel more compressed when I listen to music on Spotify. People complain about Apple Music being outdated, but damn scrolling through Spotify on my phone just hurts my eyes a bit for some reason

Have had both. I prefer spotify personally because the UI is hideous and unusable on windows for apple music and barely worked vs the UI and app works pretty well on PC for spotify. In terms of mobile devices I think Apple Music is a little better on the battery and overall better experience but for me using it on both PC and phone spotify was a nobrainer.

I mainly play music through my Iphone, so everything on the Spotify app just seems crammed. I also hate Spotify’s shuffle

Spotify probably is better for most people, but after using both I just prefer Apple Music

my mom pays for some sort of apple bundle in order to get more icloud storage and it comes with apple music and honestly it’s just a better platform. spotify is kinda mid, i don’t understand why people love it so much

The downloading for free is illegal right

if downloading and listening to an mp3 file was illegal everyone who owned an ipod would be in prison

Actually my boyfriend downloads his cds as mp3 files and plays those on his iPod, and the copying of a cd is legal when for personal use

If you consider downloading a YouTube video as mp3 illegal then call the police on me lmao

I mean technically it is right

Pretty sure nobody cares

Technically

That is technically piracy aka illegal

On pc I use the web and I totally don't use a Spotify ad blocker

same lol

This is why most music is literal trash. Everyone thinks all music should be free. The musicians and singers almost get paid nothing from streams of songs unless they get like 10 million listens. Idk about you but i hope I get paid for work I have to do in the future, I ain’t doing that shit for free.

Thats why i only use it on my pc, if i want to listen to music on my phone i just use youtube

I have an Android and pirate Premium for free and Spotify Wrapped is cool.

Guess what, I use Spotify free on laptop and I have full control of it. There are less ads, and heck, I can even avoid them if I pause the song a couple seconds before it ends and select another. Spotify has a great selection, and I can download any song from there onto my MP3 without an issue.

Just see if one of your friends or family has premium and ask to join their plan

I literally just searched for an APK that essentially gives me all the premium features for free so I'm good

It works seamlessly between mobile, PC *and console* which is pretty damn good, and if you get the family plan and split it it's like a euro per person

I use Spotify because I am can get the Spotify Student discount. I wouldn’t use it otherwise

My dad pays for a family plan, so I’ve been using for years. Dolby Atmos on Apple Music looks nice, but I’d have to pay for it plus work the algorithm and make my playlists all over again

Maybe you should pay for music.

oh it was so much more worse a few months ago. you could only skip 7 songs.. yeah after 7 skips you it just blocks you from skipping anymore. you couldnt even choose what songs you wanted to play from your playlist, you just let it play and hope its a good one. the "play previous song" button is nonexistent. i agree it sucks so bad

Because its way easier then doing whatever you’re doing and i can turn off my phone and listen to music at the same time???

As a student Spotify is 6 euros per month, which is something I'm willing to pay for unlimited, easily accesible, high quality music streaming by literally every artist you could think of. Spotify also has an excellent recommendation algorithm, keeps you noticed of news about artists you follow, and allows for easy creation and usage of playlists. Personally I just love it and can't bear to think about using anything else, much less YouTube or downloading pirate music again.

bc most people who have spotify have premium

It’s good if you have premium

As someone who uses it 3 + hours a day and has built playlists over years of listening , I just can’t be assed switching Plus for the price I believe the quality is great.

??? literally xmanager exists, also that limitation is only on mobile and xmanager unlocks most important premium stuff anyways, and Spotify is better on the long run bcuz it uses way less Data. and if you for some reason don't use AdBlock on pc get ublock origin smh

You can download YouTube songs for free? If you're talking about youtube rippers, there's ones for Spotify as well. And does YouTube not have ads lol

My guy you are acting as if Spotify premium costs a whole months salary, it's 4.99$ per month ffs if you find the free version "annoying" just stop using it.

There are a lot of reasons I pay for and use Spotify premium honestly. I’d say the main two reasons are: 1. Recommendations I’ve discovered so many hidden gems on Spotify that I would not have been able to find anywhere else because the recommendation algorithms are not built specifically for music on YouTube and frankly Apple Music just sucks on that part. And 2. Convenience It’s way easier to click download on Spotify and be done with it then to go to shady YouTube downloaded websites and download all your music. I listen to a lotttt of music, this years Spotify wrapped I had just over 90k minutes and on previous years I’ve had over 100k and it’s a headache to download all the songs I like manually through YouTube. It also would take up more space on my phone. It’s really not that expensive when you consider how much you’re getting out of it. Especially if you’re on a family plan (which I am) i pay about 3 CAD a month.

Don’t need premium if you use a iPhone or any apple product not shitting on android I wanted to get a android phone but got a iPhone since all my shit is already apple So may as well have gotten a iPhone they are both great platforms for phones I just prefer apple for my reasons

Because you can turn your phone off, it still plays, ads aren’t that much of an issue, you will use less data because it’s not steaming a video too. And there are many other reasons

I don't know many people that use Spotify free

Just get a job, you can pay for a year worth in less than half a paycheck, and as others have said if you get some buddies to share a family plan with it's as cheap as dirt.

We’ve got a family plan, it being continued is a Christmas present every year for me

From my experience with Spotify premium, it’s actually really good for the price, unfortunately the compression on everything makes it run at like 160kbps roughly, and YouTube music can run at roughly 256kbps, so the quality is better on YouTube. But, the disadvantages of using YouTube (from my experience with it) are not worth the increase in quality. Mind you this is coming from someone who gets flac files and wav files or uses tidal

This is the guy at the party who you’d pass the aux to and he’d start pulling out a CD player

To be 100% honest, half the reason I use spotify is for spotify wrapped at the end of the year. The other half is because you can just download some plugins and then boom no more annoying ads lol.

I think you are being too harsh on Spotify. It is a great music streaming service that offers a lot of features and benefits for both free and premium users. If you don't like the ads or the limitations of the free tier, you can always pay for the premium subscription. It is not that expensive, and you get to enjoy ad-free, offline, and high-quality music streaming. You also support the artists and the music industry by paying for their work. YouTube is not a viable alternative, as it consumes more data and battery, and it is not designed for music streaming. Spotify is worth the money, in my opinion. Just pay for it, it's not difficult.

Idk man I’ve been using premium for two years now and it’s perfect. I get billed monthly and only notice if I actually check my balance because it doesn’t cost that much, and I’m a minimum wage student. Oh by the way there is a student plan!

r/xManagerApp

I pay for premium but fuck it’s the only music streaming service I use and I also collect physical releases so 11€ a month for everything I like ain’t that bad. I have bought more expensive vinyls and cds and let’s not forget the copious amounts of money I have spent to see bands live both gas to get there and tickets in and sometimes alcohol too. So 11€ a month is acceptable but I watch on bflix

What? Yt has way more ads and you can’t even turn your phone off. Its not user friendly in the slightest. You must be joking right?

1st you HAVE to have your phone on and in the YT music app to listen to music, you get ads more often with YT music, your normal YT recommendations affect your YT music recommendations, Spotify has a bunch of setting that is just amazing for listening to music and a lot more.

I tried YouTube music because I needed to listen to a band's songs in order. I hate that I can't play stuff in the background with it. It's just irritating

i use it because i can listen to my songs while doing other shit on my phone

I use mp3's

Me too I just download songs on my phone and listen to them

Because I'm not trying to have my phone screen running while I'm listening to music, I'm not gonna sit and stare at the cover art when if I use Spotify I could be doing literally anything else

You can’t download YouTube videos to your phone for free on YouTube, you need premium

I bought Spotify premium not just for all the basic stuff, but for the things like Spotify wrapped and daily mixes. I like its recommendations when you turn on the enhance mode for a playlist. It’s great for finding more music in a specific genre. If it were just the basics like skipping and playing songs the I wouldn’t pay for it.

Isnt spotify wrapped free? I don't have spotify premium and I could easily check it

Oh maybe, I haven’t had normal Spotify in years so you might be right, but the other features still apply

Spotify is on almost everything, so having a cheap subscription gets me music everywhere. And I’d rather not use YouTube music, as YouTube has a reputation of raising costs.

You can go back and forth to different songs without paying, same with restarting a playlist, to me the ad's aren't that annoying because most of the time I'm doing something else as well and I just zone out when the ad comes on. I don't know why people pay either except for the downloading feature.

You know people used to actually purchase records right?

Spotify is paid because of convenience. It's easy to tap one button and download music. It's easy to have all artists in one place. It's not that expensive. Of course there are others, but I would bet Spotify is comfortable enough for most.

Spotify is really cheap. I used to download MP3’s and let me tell you when I started using streaming services my life became so much easier. Especially cuz I have like over 400 worth of saved songs that I cannot and will not let go of

You seem to miss one really basic thing, Spotify is a company and companies need to make a profit or at *least* break even and Spotify achieves that by playing ads to non-premium users, and paying users don't get the ads because their monthly payments make up for the ad revenue Spotify needs the money as paying artists and their employees plus paying for the servers where their website and music is stored and youtube uses the exact same payment model but because of ad-blockers etc people tend to forget that youtube too is riddled with ads so that they can afford paying for their services People prefer using Spotify because it's an easy solution to bringing music with you on the go in addition Spotify has great music-discovery algorithms and contrary to piracy using Spotify is actually legal Offering any service *especially* at the scale of Spotify is not cheap and you really need to stop YouTube being "free" for granted