Spotify finally enters the Middle East and North Africa region offering free and premium subscriptions.
Basic functions like playing music are totally free. But you can choose to upgrade to premium for AED 19.99 per month for better audio quality, offline listening and an ads-free experience.
For those who are new to Spotify, here’s what you can do:
- Choose what you want to listen to with Browse and Search
- Get recommendations from personalized features
- Create your own playlist – library of music (artists and albums)
- See what friends, artists and celebrities listen to
These days, artists are releasing their new singles on Spotify ahead of Youtube, Facebook or even radio – especially the budding indie musicians. With Spotify, we have quicker access to these new music and EPs.
If audio book is your thing, there are also interesting podcasts like my favorite Simon Sinek.
Here’s some of what I’ve been listening to and exploring lately:
According to an article from Daily Dot, data use depends on the quality you are streaming from.
- Normal quality- 96 kilobits, which lets you stream 40 megabytes per hour
- High quality- 160 kilobits, which lets you stream 70 megabytes per hour
- Extreme quality- 302 kilobits, which lets you stream 150 megabytes per hour
- Automatic quality- this option configures your streaming quality based on your connection
These rates are not fixed. Spotify remembers songs you previously listened to, or caches them, so you won’t use as much data the next time you play them.