Back in 2014, I created my Spotify account. (@simon_lucas98, by the way, if you’re interested. I make great playlists.) And when I got my first job, I upgraded to Premium. $10 a month, no ads, and offline listening. Sounds great, right? Well, then I became a college student, and that’s when the magic happened.
I learned that there was a special Premium plan for students that was 50% off. I logged onto my account and switched my plan. After verifying I was a student at Murray State through their online registry, (which took about five seconds,) my price was reduced from $10 a month to $5. Couldn’t get much better, right?
Then they added Hulu to my plan.
I was, in a word, shook. My price didn’t go up at all and now I had Hulu? Sure, it was the plan that included commercials, but it’s its own separate profile. I could even add other profiles for my other family members, which makes for a great bargaining chip at home. “Oh, I don’t do enough around here? Who do you think pays for your constant ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ binge-watching?”
Not to mention, Spotify was still fantastic. Every Monday, a personalized playlist of new music, based on my listening history. With over 30 million songs, I could listen to basically anything I could think of. Music, podcasts, and even a few music videos.
And then they added Showtime. And I truly got to have my cake and eat it, too. Now I got to watch everything on Showtime, too?
Honestly, to me, the one drawback of Spotify is their lack of a referral program. I’ve gotten so many of my friends switched over from A*ple Mu*ic to Spotify that I honestly deserve some sort of reward.