[sharktale]

I don't know whether this deserves a seperate thread, but I can't contain my excitement for this official pricing and availability. Finally I can stop exploring YouTube for songs now (It's UI sucked, just that :P ) .

Spotify is now (kind-of) available in India.

Pricing Details are as follows :



Also, Hindi songs are available. Cannot vouch for regional songs, though I saw a Telangana related playlist.

[R2D2]

I just signed up a few minutes back and saw this thread. Will close my US account if all the music I need is available.

[H_Dogg72]

It's good stuff.
I'll be paying 7k instead of 16k that I do for my us family account. Eye-opening how much I and many of my friends even spend for Spotify.
All this may be short-lived if my playlist isn't on it. Spotify mentions a limited catalogue right now.

[download2live]

Is'nt the only difference between the free and paid version is low resolution audio and ads? Or is there something else I am missing?

[sharktale]

Originally Posted by download2live

Is'nt the only difference between the free and paid version is low resolution audio and ads? Or is there something else I am missing?

Differences :




I got premium basically because of the ability to play a single track, and unlimited skips.

[GTO]

Related Thread (Your favourite streaming music service (radio)?)

Perfect news to start the day with . I'm a hardcore user of Spotify and use it for ~10 hours a day while working, and then again if there is a party (nothing to beat Spotify playlists for lounge / dance music). Spotify is my no.1 music discovery tool.

Will wait & watch though before switching over from a USA account to an Indian one. Netflix India's library pales in comparison to its USA one and I hope it's not the same with Spotify India. Guess the music industry is easier to work with than movies.

Thanks for sharing!

[ampere]

Question: With Google, Apple and Amazon in the house, is it worthy to get a Spotify?

I understand they were original guys to get into this. But with so many online guys coming in easy with their services bundled (like Amazon music with prime membership), does it still make sense to get Spotify?

[s4ch]

Spotify Premium can be bought in India officially without a US VPN or account: https://www.spotify.com/in/premium/?checkout=false

There's a free 30 day premium trial too. Let's see how this goes as I'm a heavy user of both Google Play and Amazon Music.

[sharktale]

Originally Posted by GTO

Will wait & watch though before switching over from a USA account to an Indian one.

Whatever songs I threw at the app, it recognized it immediately.

Originally Posted by ampere

Question: With Google, Apple and Amazon in the house, is it worthy to get a Spotify?

The algorithm for song/playlists recommendation is unlike any other. For eg : I started adding 3-4 tracks for a punjabi genre playlist, and the immediate recommendations improved so much, that I merely had to choose from there, for all the songs I had in my mind.
I used Prime Music, it was really cumbersome to manually choose songs and add to it. Plus, the availability of extremely diverse musical playlists is a big USP in favour for Spotify.

Originally Posted by s4ch

Spotify Premium can be bought in India officially without a US VPN or account.

It was getting redirected to US page till yesterday evening I guess.



PS :
One can use http://tunemymusic.com to import songs from one streaming platform to another for free. This also recognises Youtube music Playlists.


Kind of Self Promotion :P

I had long ago created 2 playlists on YouTube, which have now been converted to Spotify ones, using the above mentioned website.
Contains popular tracks in the 90s and 00s, till the time I was in school, which I earnestly hope is nostalgia inducing.

Hindi Songs Playlist

English Songs Playlist

[akbaree]

Great indeed. I created a new account yesterday night to take advantage of 30 day free trial to determine the Indian catalog for my use. And I am very disappointed with the collection currently available on Indian catalog. For context and it of course depends on the kind of music one listens to but for argument sake the current catalog doesn't have albums like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Ashiqui 2 - the ones I searched.

In early 2010s I did pay for Spotify in USD for few years and was one of the early adopters before shifting to Apple Music when it launched in India (to save cost of course). But the music quality is pretty bad on Apple Music.

Made a shift to Google which has better music quality but the catalog is not as extensive as Apple Music. It also has one of the worst music discovery. And after Manmarziyaan never released on Google, I gave up my subscription in frustration.

Managing with Amazon and Gaana+ right now. These are not great but at least don't cost much as I have Amazon Prime anyways and Gaana+ subscription is cheap. I was looking forward to Spotify India launch to find a reliable and cost effective streaming home for myself but it seems will have to wait until Spotify India catalog gains any relevance.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by ampere

Question: With Google, Apple and Amazon in the house, is it worthy to get a Spotify?

For English / Western music, there is NOTHING that compares to Spotify. I have used them all, extensively. Spotify is to music what YouTube is to videos. It is the best music playing & discovery app there is.

For Hindi, I like Gaana the best.

Originally Posted by sharktale

The algorithm for song/playlists recommendation is unlike any other. For eg : I started adding 3-4 tracks for a punjabi genre playlist, and the immediate recommendations improved so much, that I merely had to choose from there, for all the songs I had in my mind.

This is what I love about Spotify - the ability to play you music that you might like. I add 20 songs to a playlist, right click and choose ""go to playlist radio" and the stuff that comes out is just incredible . I hope you use "playlist radios" (basically, never-ending radios based on the songs in your playlist).

My current office music, all found & delivered by Spotify

[H_Dogg72]

Originally Posted by akbaree

In early 2010s I did pay for Spotify in USD for few years and was one of the early adopters before shifting to Apple Music when it launched in India (to save cost of course). But the music quality is pretty bad on Apple Music.

I find that surprising.
I have been using spotify for the past 3 years ( USA Family account) and tried out apple music for 6 months as well.
AM has the best music quality by far.
Spotify is not THAT great but I use it for the other features it has.

Pro tip: Select highest quality in the settings manually, it is not on the highest by default.

Good to hear there are many others who used to pay the US rates instead of just pirating. Birds of a feather, eh?

[akbaree]

Originally Posted by H_Dogg72

I find that surprising.
I have been using spotify for the past 3 years ( USA Family account) and tried out apple music for 6 months as well.
AM has the best music quality by far.
Spotify is not THAT great but I use it for the other features it has.

Pro tip: Select highest quality in the settings manually, it is not on the highest by default.

Good to hear there are many others who used to pay the US rates instead of just pirating. Birds of a feather, eh?

I have a, what I consider, a decent stereo system to listen to my music. I rarely use headphones on the phone. And my receiver supports airplay. So I used an iPad to airplay Apple Music on my stereo system. On the other hand I use a Chromecast Audio to cast the rest. IMHO the Apple Music quality in comparison was not up to the mark.

I was also looking forward to Spotify India launch because my receiver has built in Spotify player. I can get rid of this additional hardware - Chromecast/iPad etc. I mostly have Windows and Android (phone, Android Auto)

P.S.:
Selecting highest available streaming quality is the first setting I select on any streaming app.
I am also a proud owner of lifetime Plex pass that I use to play 1 TB of ripped CD quality music from my personal collection.

[R2D2]

I've used Spotify (US through a VPN), now Spotify India, Google Play Music, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, JioSaavn, Gaana+ etc. All 'pro/premium' subscriptions. Heck man, these are so cheap here in India I subscribe to all!!

"Spotty" gets my vote out of all of them. Sharing is easier and dare I say sound quality is better though they all claim to stream @ 320 Kbps Ogg Vorbis or MP3. Apple is at about 256 Kbps AAC at high quality. Both Ogg and AAC are better than MP3 at the same bitrate.

The auto generated playlists are WAY bettter. Most importantly the music is somehow more natural sounding. Nice! I listen to music spanning several diverse genres - pop, rock, hard rock, ambient, deep house, club among others. Hindi music is better on Saavn or Gaana IMO.

My rankings overall:

1) Spotify
2) Apple Music
3) Google Play
4) Amazon Prime Music (good SQ here too)
5) JioSaavn
6) Gaana+

[Rajeevraj]

Had never used Spotify. After seeing comments here have decided to try it out. Good quality auto generated playlists is one of my major issues with most music services. Looks like Spotify can do that best. Will try it out.

Had a quick look at my regional content (Malayalam-Tamil). Seems pretty decent with lot of the new releases popping up.