Spotify is one of the first music streaming services. It provides legal access to a huge music catalog and the ability to play tracks online without having to purchase them. Users value Spotify for its curated playlists and precise selection of songs to suit listeners' tastes, as well as its availability on all popular platforms.
Officially, the service does not work in Russia and Ukraine, however, despite the difficulties with registering and installing applications, it is still in demand among music lovers. In reality there are not many problems. By following simple rules, you can safely enjoy music from Spotify's 300 million-strong catalog.
How to register a Spotify account in Russia and Ukraine
Spotify checks your location when you sign up, so you can't sign up for an account from a country where the service isn't supported. The good news is that the verification occurs based on the IP address, and it is easy to spoof it using a VPN.
This is done like this:
- Using TunnelBear, Browsec or any other VPN, we disguise ourselves as a resident of the country in which Spotify officially operates. The USA is quite suitable.
- With VPN enabled, go to Spotify.com and click Get Spotify Free.
- Fill out the form and confirm registration. Ready!
Music service Spotify announced its launch in Russia
How Spotify came out in Russia
Swedish music service Spotify was launched in 2008. It allows you to legally listen to more than 50 million music tracks for a monthly fee. In the spring of 2020, the company conducted an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange; the company's current capitalization is $48.5 billion.
The media announced the launch date of the Spotify music service in Russia Technologies and media
Read on RBC Pro
How to become a Speaker: advice from re:Store founder Evgeniy Butman How to manage talent in the era of “large-scale rebellion” - part I Bill Gates - about the madness of conspiracy theorists and the new Steve Jobs Strategy of Ivanushka the Fool: how a top manager can get out of a dead end in 9 steps
In January 2014, the company registered Spotify LLC in Russia and planned to begin operating in the country in the fall of the same year. However, the launch was postponed to the beginning of 2020, as Spotify was unable to agree on a partnership with MTS, with whose support it planned to operate in Russia. But the launch did not take place in 2015 either. Information about Spotify's entry into the Russian market appeared again in the spring of 2020. According to RBC sources, the service expected to launch in the summer of 2020, but in the end the launch was postponed.
A Spotify representative did not specify how many users and what revenue the service expects to receive in Russia. He only said that a team has been formed at the local office that has created about 100 exclusive playlists specifically for this market and will update them regularly. When asked by RBC whether Spotify plans to store data of Russian users in Russia and other requirements of local legislation, a company representative assured that they comply with the legislation of each country where the service is present.
According to Statista’s forecast, in 2020 the volume of the music streaming market in Russia will reach $231 million, and by 2024 it should grow to $271 million. The number of users of streaming music services should reach 9.8 million by the end of the year.
Sberbank called on the market to prepare for Spotify's entry into Russia Technologies and media
There are already legal streaming services in Russia - BOOM from Mail.ru Group, Yandex.Music, as well as Apple Music and Google Play Music, recalled Alexey Byrdin, CEO of the Internet Video Association. “It seems to me that Spotify is fundamentally no different from these services. Considering that Spotify does not have its own platform, like Apple Music, or its own ecosystem, like Yandex, it will be difficult for it to position itself in Russia or it will have to spend a significant budget on promotion,” Byrdin said. At the same time, music streaming services have been developing rapidly in recent years; the number of their users can grow to 20 million people, Byrdin believes.
According to Alexander Kardash, director of the media and entertainment industry consulting practice at PwC Russia, based on data from the largest players at the end of last year, there were 7.9 million subscribers to music streaming services in Russia. This indicator includes trials, that is, those who use the service without payment during the promotional period. The share of such users in the market is not disclosed, however, according to PwC, it can reach 45–65%. PwC estimated the volume of revenue from subscriptions in the Russian music streaming market excluding advertising revenues in 2020 at 6–7 billion rubles. This year the figure may rise to 9–11 billion rubles, the company predicts. At the same time, the largest market players BOOM/VK Music and Yandex.Music accounted for 75–80% of subscribers, followed by Apple Music and the Russian independent service Sound, YouTube Music took fifth place in terms of audience, Kardash said. “We expect that Spotify in the Russian market will focus on its immediate target audience - residents of cities with a population of over a million people with a request for a large catalog of accessible music and podcasts, mainly in foreign languages. Thus, without entering into direct competition with the Big Two, Spotify, depending on the chosen promotion strategy, can take a 5-10% market share in the medium term, and its main opponent in the fight for the audience will most likely be Apple Music,” he predicts.
How to Install Spotify Mobile Apps
Immediately after registration, the download of the Spotify desktop client will begin, which installs without any problems. With mobile applications it is a little more complicated.
There is no Spotify in the Russian and Ukrainian versions of Google Play. You can install it on your Android smartphone only by downloading the APK file from the Internet. For example, with APKMirror.
On iPhone and iPad, you can only install applications from the company store. Therefore, you will have to create an account in the American App Store and download the Spotify client from there. It is not difficult.
Applications will work properly. But to update, you will have to download a new APK file or log in to your US Apple ID. Also, due to Spotify restrictions, you need to log into your account via VPN every two weeks.
In addition, in the free version you cannot:
- save tracks to the device’s memory and listen to them offline;
- enable high quality streaming;
- skip more than six tracks per hour (mobile version only);
- select a specific song in the playlist (mobile version only);
- disable advertising.
All these restrictions do not affect the use of the service, especially on a computer. The Spotify library is available to everyone in full. However, for $10 a month you can buy a subscription and forget about all the limits.
How to register with Spotify?
We log in through the existing account that we created at the payment stage. The main page of the service will open. That's it, you can use it!
Spoify is not yet officially available in our country, so there may be some glitches. For example, sometimes when paying, the service may write that it does not yet work in your country.
This can be solved simply. We turn on the VPN, select another region where streaming already works (for example, the USA), and try to log into the service - it should work the first time. In my situation, I had to log in through the USA, but a few minutes after logging in, the service itself updated the profile settings, adding Russia as a region.
How to pay for a Spotify subscription
You can purchase a premium subscription through PayPal or by topping up your Spotify account with a gift certificate for the required amount. In both cases there are some nuances.
To pay via PayPal you will have to create a fake American account. And then transfer funds to it from your main PayPal account, to which the card of a Russian or Ukrainian bank is linked.
It's easier with gift certificates. You can buy them on eBay and top up your Spotify account by simply entering the code you receive. They are searched for Gift Card Spotify Premium. It is better to buy from reliable retailers with a large number of sold lots.
Spotify Free Version Limitations
You don’t have to pay right away, you can sign up for a trial subscription
- Playback is occasionally interrupted by commercials;
- Switching tracks does not occur in order, but out of order;
- You cannot skip more than 6 tracks per hour;
- You cannot save songs for offline listening.
Apple organized the Apple Music Awards
Even though you can't buy a paid subscription right now, Spotify's official website provides detailed information about premium access. Looking ahead, I would like to note that the rumor that the most basic subscription would cost 300 rubles per month did not come true. The Swedish service did not further ado and set the lowest possible price for access to listening to music. And as for tariffs, we will have five of them:
Advertising on Spotify - you have to pay for the pleasure
And now I’ll say a few words about the unpleasant. Until now, everything has been simple and cloudless, registration with Spotify from Russia is available, easy installation of the application, convenient player menu and an excellent selection of music. But advertising is the big crutch you'll encounter. It is clear that you and I are using a free account and viewing advertisements is our payment for this. Get ready to listen and watch advertising every 4-8 tracks, and repeat it quite often. Fortunately, it is very short - 10-15 seconds. In principle, for us, “spoiled” by domestic television and radio advertising, this is not so fatal.
Meet Spotify!
The service launched in October 2008 and within two years had 15 million users, a sixth of whom signed up for a paid subscription. Currently, music lovers have access to more than thirty million tracks of various genres and genres in the Spotify music library, and the number of subscribers has exceeded 60 million.
They say that if you start listening to all the works currently included in the Spotify catalog without interruption, you will end up with the last song in 80 years (!).
This does not take into account the fact that the service’s collection is updated with thousands of new tracks every day. Today, the logo of this music application - a green circle with three radio waves and a name below - is known anywhere in the world.
Spotify doesn't work on Android
If you have a Spotify problem on your Android device that can't be played elsewhere, it can almost always be resolved by following a few simple steps.
Before working through this troubleshooting guide, first try logging out of the app and logging in again, as this will often resolve smaller issues. If you get a blank screen when you launch the app, have playback issues, skipping tracks, offline sync issues, or unavailable songs, keep reading.
Clear cache and perform a clean install
The cache is where Spotify stores data so it can work faster and more efficiently in the future. Sometimes the data in the cache may become corrupted and you will face usage problems.
Luckily, Android makes it easy to clear the cache, allowing the app to restore a new, uncorrupted set of data. Just go to Settings > Applications > Spotify > Storage & cache and tap Clear cache. You should also click on Clear data.
Then use one of these Android file managers to ensure that the following four files no longer exist:
- /emulated/0/Android/data/com.spotify.music
- /ext_sd/Android/data/com.spotify.music
- /sdcard1/Android/data/com.spotify.music
- /data/media/0/Android/data/com.spotify.music
If they are still visible, remove them manually.
Finally, uninstall the Spotify app and reinstall it via Google Play Store.
Remove cleaning apps, process managers, and battery managers
Some cleaning apps contain a feature to stop the process, which may affect Spotify. Likewise, process managers and battery managers can interfere with the various running processes that Spotify uses. They can be especially aggressive when either the screen is turned off or an application has been running in the background for a long time.
If you really need/want to keep these apps installed, try adding Spotify to your app whitelists.
Can't add local files to Spotify playlist.
One cool feature that Spotify offers is the ability to add locally stored music to the desktop client. This allows you to mix Spotify tracks with your own tracks in your playlists.
Spotify recently changed the way it handles local music on Windows and Mac desktop clients. Previously, you could drag and drop the files you want into a playlist, but now it's a little more difficult—a change in the process has led some users to mistakenly believe that the service was broken.
To add files, go to Edit (Windows) or Spotify (Mac) > Preferences > Local Files. You can ask Spotify to search your iTunes files or music library, or point it in the direction of stored music.
Learn more about using Spotify
We've covered many of the most common Spotify problems here, but there will always be user-specific examples beyond the scope of this article.
Remember that if you continue to have problems, your first port of call should always be the official support channels. Besides the various official Spotify accounts, the Spotify Forums and troubleshooting subreddit are also great places to get help.
If you want to learn more, check out our guide detailing how to manage your Spotify playlists.
Share link:
- Click here to share content on Facebook. (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
- Click to share posts on Pocket (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
- Send this to a friend (Opens in new window)
- More
- Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
Most valuable: how to send a track to Spotify curators/editors?
There are a few rules you should know about before setting a release date.
- The application can be sent to Spotify curators no later than 7 days before the release (or better yet, even earlier). Each thematic playlist is updated at different time intervals and on different days.
- You can send an application to the curators for content that was previously absent on the site (or make it unique - find out how to contact support)
- An application can be sent to curators for ONE track from the release. Therefore, the tactic of publishing an album on Spotify is not the best.
