Spotify.pngSpotify is trying to boost its subscriber numbers with a holiday promotion that lets customers test drive the service at a minimal monthly cost. The new holiday promotion is available now and offers three months of Spotify Premium for just 99 cents.

Spotify Premium is the company's top-tier plan that allows users to download music for offline use, stream while on their mobile devices, and listen without the interruption of advertisements. With Spotify Premium regularly priced at $9.99 per month, the promotion significantly drops the price for new and existing users who have never subscribed to the Premium plan or previously used a free trial. Customers can sign up for the promotion through December 31, allowing holiday gift recipients to take advantage of this offer.

Spotify is a leading streaming music service with more than 12.5 million paying subscribers and 50 million active users. The music service joins Pandora as the top two music apps in the iOS App Store by revenue, beating out Apple's Beats Music, which slips into the third spot. To boost its position, Apple reportedly is planning to overhaul the Beats Music service early next year with a fresh new look integrating into iTunes branding and reduced pricing that may cut the cost of the service in half to as little as $5 per month.

Top Rated Comments

macintologist Avatar
146 months ago
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to own my music.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WordMasterRice Avatar
146 months ago
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to own my music.

I don't think it has much to do with fashioned-ness if you will, but more to do with your listening habits. If I were to buy everything that I have listened to on Spotify I'd have spent $10,000+. That's a lifetime of spotify subscription.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
146 months ago
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to own my music.
I won't call you old fashioned, but I will say that owning music is bad for the artists that you listen to most often, and probably for you too, if you listen to more than ~7700 tracks during your life.

How it hurts you:
For $10K, you could either buy 7752 tracks, or you could listen on Spotify for 83 years. If you won't want to listen to that many tracks over that many years, then you're better off buying the tracks / albums individually. If you will be listening to that many or more, then you should get Spotify.

How it hurts your favorite artists:
If you stream a track more than 70 times in your life, you have given that artist more for that track, in streaming revenue, then you would have by having bought that track. You don't have to listen to the track very often. Just once every 14 months or so.

How it rewards artists you don't like:
If you buy a track and listen to it fewer than 70 times in your life, you have given that artist more for that track than if you had streamed it.

IE, if you get a song stuck in your head, buy it, listen to it 20 times in one day, then get sick of it and throw it away, you have given that artist the same amount no matter what, because you bought it. In contrast, the one that you listen to 200 times over several years? They get the exact same amount.

So you're not old fashioned. But you're wrong. You're rewarding people who don't deserve your money, failing to give it to the people you want to give it to, and just wasting your own money in general.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pubwvj Avatar
146 months ago
I detest these "Only To New Customer" deals. A business should be valuing its existing customers like gold and give them the best deals. That is how we do it and it pays back with customer loyalty over the decades. Existing customers are our bread and butter, their regular purchases pay the bills and help us grow. They give us predictability in our production flow. New customers are nice but I don't give them a better deal my old customers. Old customers get the best deals.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macintologist Avatar
146 months ago
I don't think it has much to do with fashioned-ness if you will, but more to do with your listening habits. If I were to buy everything that I have listened to on Spotify I'd have spent $10,000+. That's a lifetime of spotify subscription.
That's assuming that everyone actually buys music rather than borrowing it from friends or ripping CDs from the library.

----------

as I barely make it through a whole album let alone more than once nowadays streaming is more than welcome
Those aren't good albums. Good music doesn't get old very quickly. A great album can be listened to countless times.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacFather Avatar
146 months ago
Deleted.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils First New Products of 2026

Monday January 26, 2026 1:55 pm PST by
Apple today introduced its first two physical products of 2026: a second-generation AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided Solo Loop for the Apple Watch. Read our coverage of each announcement to learn more:Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More Apple Introduces New Black Unity Apple Watch BandBoth the new AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided...
Second Generation AirTag Feature

Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More

Monday January 26, 2026 6:07 am PST by
Apple today introduced the second-generation AirTag, with key features including longer range for tracking items and a louder speaker. For those who are not familiar, the AirTag is a small accessory that you can attach to your backpack, keys, or other items. Then, you can track the location of those items in the Find My app on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iCloud.com. The new...
iPhone 5s

iPhone 5s Gets New Software Update 13 Years After Launch

Monday January 26, 2026 3:56 pm PST by
Alongside iOS 26.2.1, Apple today released an updated version of iOS 12 for devices that are still running that operating system update, eight years after the software was first released. iOS 12.5.8 is available for the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6, meaning Apple is continuing to support these devices for 13 and 12 years after launch, respectively. The iPhone 5s came out in September 2013,...
Apple Logo Spotlight

Apple to Launch These 20+ Products This Year

Sunday January 25, 2026 6:02 pm PST by
2026 promises to be yet another busy year for Apple, with the company rumored to be planning more than 20 product announcements over the coming months. Beyond the usual updates to iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, Apple is expected to release its all-new smart home hub, which was reportedly delayed until the more personalized version of Siri is ready. Other unique products rumored for ...
M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Reportedly Aiming to Upgrade the MacBook Pro Twice This Year

Sunday January 25, 2026 11:46 am PST by
Apple plans to release new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Studio Display models in the first half of this year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman added that redesigned MacBook Pro models with an OLED touch screen "should be hitting toward the end of 2026," meaning that the MacBook Pro line would be upgraded twice this year. First up...