Is Spotify Premium a Good Deal?
The default music streaming service with 100M+ songs
$12.99/mo
Quick Verdict: Is Spotify Premium Worth It?
Fair — Deal Score: 7.8/10
| Price | $12.99/mo |
| Free Tier | Yes |
| Best For | You listen to music 1+ hours daily and value discovery — the algorithm alone justifies the price |
| Skip If | You mostly listen to a fixed playlist of songs you already own — the free tier or YouTube Music may be enough |
✓ Pros
- Best-in-class discovery algorithms — Discover Weekly and Release Radar remain industry benchmarks
- Now includes 15 hours/month of audiobooks at no extra cost, adding real value
- Cross-platform sync is seamless — phone, desktop, car, smart speakers, everything just works
✗ Cons
- Third price hike in three years — $12.99/mo feels like the ceiling for many users
- Still no lossless/hi-fi audio despite years of promises — audiophiles look elsewhere
- Free tier with shuffle-only and ads is deliberately degraded to push upgrades
Our Analysis
Spotify Premium at $12.99/month is the streaming music subscription that most people default to, and for good reason. The platform hosts over 100 million tracks, its recommendation engine remains the best in the industry, and the cross-device experience is unmatched — your music follows you from phone to desktop to car to smart speaker without friction. The addition of 15 hours of audiobooks per month has quietly turned Premium into a multi-media subscription that competes with Audible on casual listening.
The sentiment on Reddit is split along predictable lines. Heavy listeners — those with headphones on 4+ hours a day — consider Premium essential and rarely question the value. The Discover Weekly algorithm is genuinely beloved, with r/spotify threads regularly praising how it surfaces artists they would never have found otherwise. But the third price increase in three years (from $9.99 to $10.99 to $11.99 to $12.99) has pushed casual listeners to seriously evaluate alternatives. YouTube Music is the most frequently mentioned competitor in cancellation threads, especially for users who already pay for YouTube Premium.
The elephant in the room is lossless audio. Spotify promised a HiFi tier years ago and still has not delivered, while Apple Music includes lossless at no extra cost. Audiophiles on r/audiophile and r/headphones increasingly recommend Apple Music or Tidal over Spotify for sound quality. For the average listener on Bluetooth earbuds, the difference is negligible — but it is a real gap for anyone who invested in quality headphones. Bottom line: Spotify Premium remains the safest all-rounder for music streaming, but the price hikes are testing user loyalty, and competitors are catching up on features that used to be Spotify exclusives.
Cost Breakdown
Family plan ($21.99 for 6 people) is the best value; Individual at $12.99 is fair if you listen daily
What Real Users Report
Discover Weekly has introduced them to more artists they love than any friend ever has. That algorithm alone is worth the subscription for me.
Third price hike and still no lossless audio. they switched to Apple Music — same price, actual hi-res audio, and the library is identical. Spotify's only advantage is playlists.
The audiobook addition caught them off guard. they was paying $15/mo for Audible on top of Spotify. Now they cancelled Audible and just use their 15 hours — plenty for 1-2 books a month.
Worth it if
You listen to music 1+ hours daily and value discovery — the algorithm alone justifies the price
Skip if
You mostly listen to a fixed playlist of songs you already own — the free tier or YouTube Music may be enough
