A day after announcing that Kenya was one of 80 new countries around the world that would finally be getting access to its catalogue of over 60 million songs and 2 million podcasts, Spotify’s application is now downloadable from the Google Play Store.
After downloading, new users have an option to sign up for the audio streaming service while existing users can simply log in and pick up from where they left the last time they logged in/accessed the service.
Once that is done, one has a choice of either continuing to use Spotify’s free tier, which allows them access to the entire music and podcasts catalogue but with advertising in between streams or to upgrade to Spotify Premium which is, well, the service’s premium tier.
Benefits of Spotify Premium include the ability to download music for offline listening and being able to choose which songs to play (unlimited skip) instead of being locked to just shuffling in addition to removing ads.
Should you wish to upgrade to Spotify Premium, here is what you need to know:
Supported modes of payment
- M-Pesa (this only shows up and works when you select a one-off subscription option)
- Card
- PayPal
How to change from the US or other country back to Kenya (existing users only)
For those eager to try out things like yours truly, Spotify access isn’t new to us – we have been using the service for ages. However, with it now available in the country, removing the need to use foreign lands as our addresses and the annoying VPN apps, coupled with the much more affordable subscription plans for Premium, there are lots of incentives to use “Kenyan” Spotify.
That can be done by simply navigating to the profile settings (from a browser) once one is logged in.
Pricing
Spotify is offering Kenyans a mix of the usual subscription plans that we have seen deployed elsewhere – heck, even been a part of – and others meant specifically to lure the Kenyan public into trying out the premium tier of the service without needing to commit more than they would want to, just in case they need to bolt.
For the traditional plans, users have an option to pay for Spotify Premium at a rate of Kshs 299 every month or Kshs 2,990 annually, for an ordinary single user account. Or they can go with the family option, which allows up to 6 people from the same location to access the service at a rate of Kshs 479 per month. For students, a Spotify Premium subscription will set them back just Kshs 149 every month.
Another option called Spotify Premium Duo subsidises the cost of accessing Spotify Premium between two people sharing a location/home (but not many enough to justify getting a Family subscription) to just Kshs 389 per month, down from a possible Kshs 598 if they paid separately for solo subscriptions.
Now, about Kshs 300 every month or the annual fee of almost Kshs 3,000 that Spotify is asking for might be a stretch especially to those who have never used Spotify before. Or, for those that have but have never used Premium, it may be too steep a barrier for entry into the world of audio streaming. This is why Spotify is offering a series of one-off pricing options.
For just Kshs 89, one can try out Spotify Premium for a week (7 days). For Kshs 329, one can use Spotify without ads for a month. Kshs 956 gets one 3 months of access while Kshs 1,794 stretches the access period to half a year.
The interesting thing to note about the weekly, monthly and bi-annual one-off subscriptions is that one can pay for them using mobile money service M-Pesa. Due to the service’s own limitations, it can’t be used for the recurring payments that need to be made under the usual Spotify subscription plans (monthly, annual) described above. There, users have two options: cards or PayPal.
Unlike other subscription plans geared at the individual listener, Family and Duo plans also come with something unique from Spotify: customized mixes based on the tastes of all the people included in the plans.
Are you going to pay for Spotify Premium?
