- Does Spotify Use Data
- How Much Download Does Spotify Users
- How Does Spotify Work
- How Much Data Does Spotify Use To Download
- How Much Does Spotify Pay
Now, how much data does Spotify use per song? Well, a little math would answer that question. Based on the table, a typical three or four-minute song at normal sound quality would consume a little over 2 MB or 2,000 KB of data. At high sound quality, a song would consume around 4 MB or 4,000 KB of data. Spotify uses a cache on your computer’s hard drive (as well as on the hard drives of all Spotify users). A cache is a temporary holding area for tracks you’ve listened to — if you want to listen to a track again, Spotify draws upon the music stored in your cache so that it doesn’t have to re-download the track.
March 18, 2019
Have you ever wondered how much data does your music streaming service use? If your Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music or any other service is draining your Internet plan?
It’s not gonna be an article about making the budget cuts. We’re gonna talk about minimizing your phone data usage when listening to streaming music.
Remember when you were a kid and you got some small cash from your parents and you plan big for your future VC empire built on outsourced work and clever marketing? Right.
You spent it all on candy in the first store you found. How not to repeat that mistake with limited data on your phone?
Submarine
Does Spotify Use Data
So we looked and talked and asked some really tech-savvy people and came up with a simple fix…es for this issue. First off, there’s the thing that’s called the offline function. We’ve been through this already, but to get you on your feet – it’s an option, that allows your device to download the Ogg or Vorbis format files and play the tunes on demand without the internet connection! This is the best way to get your music without losing data from your phone.
The problem is, you need to reemerge on the web every 30 days. The music files stored on your device will update on their quality (if it had improved), licenses will get paid according to what you had stashed and some royalties will get transferred to the artists. You can dive back below the grid with your phone for another 30 days and stay there without using up your precious data. Just like a submarine that needs to recharge batteries and oxygen every now and then.
Let’s know our data eaters first…
How much data does Pandora use?
Sure, you can always use Wi-Fi to minimize the data consumption but let’s face it… We all like listening to music when we’re not home. Especially then. Pandora does not allow to store files on your computer/mobile device too. In contrary to Spotify or Apple Music.
As a premium user of Pandora, if you listen to music for 1h, you will use 86.4mb per hour. Is that a lot? It’s your decision. The free version (the one full of annoying ads) consumes 57.6mb on the other hand.
How much data does iHeartradio use?
Another monster sneaking on your data… The iHeartRadio music streaming service offers a 128kbps bitrate option. That’s the only option. That equals to 57.6mb. Just like in the case of Pandora.
You will have to listen to iHeartradio for around 17 hours to use one gigabyte. If you have limits on your data plan, it’s better not to fall asleep listening to any music platform I guess…
How much data does Spotify use?
Spotify likes to give us a choice. And we love it. Spotify offers a few different streaming sound quality. The lowest is 96kbps, and the highest is 320kbps. Which means that you will use this much data per hour:
- 128kbps = 58mb
- 256kbps = 115mb
Is it worth to rely on the highest quality? I’ll leave it for you to judge… You can also download songs from Spotify and just forget about data limits, of course…
Apple Music does not offer 320kbps quality so if you’re a music geek, you may want to go with Spotify here. (Psst, we have a full comparison of Spotify and Apple Music)
How to save data with Apple Music (and other music streaming services)
We’re not trying to sell you an iPhone now, it’s just that it has an additional option to save you some data and it fits the idea of this article to have four paragraphs.
Anyway, follow these steps:
- Open Music.
- Tap Beats 1 Shows.
- Select the show you want to listen to under On Demand.
- Scroll down and tap the playlist you want under ‘Playlists’.
- Tap the download button (looks like a cloud with a downward-pointing arrow in it).
What did you just do? You have limited your Beats 1 playtime to mitigate how much data the Music streaming app eats. If that’s not another reason to choose Apple Music, than I donno what it is.
And if that convinced you, you can easily migrate from Spotify to Apple Music.
Get a new deal with your operator
We’re not telling you to buy more phones, forfeit your current deal or… you know what? Do what you want, this article will have four paragraphs if its the last thing we’ll write!
How Much Download Does Spotify Users
Thanks to recent cross-selling deals done by the smart guys at the top of the smartphone companies, you can get yourself a new cell phone plan with your music platform not using data. For example at Virgin Mobile and have your needs covered when using Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRADIO, Slacker Radio, Napster or 8Tracks completely data-free.
How Does Spotify Work
Other tips
We’ve found some more stuff. Since it’s nothing really new or hidden from the public by some obscure marketing strategies or simply difficult to find – we’ll just leave them here.
Your smartphone can be set to stick to known Wi-Fi only. When outside of any recognized spots, your phone can stay offline. That’s one way to limit your data loss during the month, but sometimes you just can’t pass the opportunity to stay on the line, when waiting for an important email, while out of office.
Of course, you should only download your music when connected to Wi-Fi. Ogg and Vorbis formats are very light since they are super compressed, but still – getting an entire discography of Iron Maiden can hurt by the end of the month.
Depending on where you listen to your music the most – try to think one step ahead. Plan for the future and create playlists. Everybody has playlists for all kinds of stuff. If you listen to your music on the daily commute, set for some energizing, positive music on the way to work. On your way home? You may need some relaxing, nerve-soothing groovy beats. Download and make those playlists before leaving the house and you got your daily dose of music while your phone data usage doesn’t go up.
Remember to use Wi-Fi when listening to music at work. Don’t you dare feel bad about it… Music is something that helps you focus, get results and most of all, it numbs out those annoying people talking over your head, some call ‘fellow employees’.
Ok, now you know how to check your data transfer before you wreck your… Or at least, you can stop your music to do all the draining. Good luck and happy browsing while listening!
You’re not sure which platforms will let you listen to your music offline and cut your phone data usage down? We’ve got a nice post about how to listen to music offline.
How Much Data Does Spotify Use To Download
No matter if you prefer Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube, you should always be careful with your data usage (and battery drain). Good luck!
What's next?
First there were cassettes. Then there were CDs. Audio files were next, and now, Spotify is one of the most popular ways to listen to music. An endless supply of music is awesome for audiophiles and anyone who likes being able to listen to what they want at a moment’s notice, but it can also consume quite a bit of data. That’s why it’s important for listeners to know exactly how much their playlists could cost them in data.
How Much Data Will a Typical Song on Spotify Consume?
If the listener has Spotify on its default setting, a 3-minute song consumes 2 megabytes (MB) of data or more. That means if they listen to songs for an hour straight, it will consume about 40 MB. At 10 hours of listening, Spotify will have used about half a gigabyte (GB).
This makes it critical that the listener has a data plan that can cover their needs. There are still some cell phone plans on the market that provide a mere 100 MB of data each month, which would only be enough for three hours of music.
Now, there are different quality settings on Spotify, and the amount of data used depends on the quality of the song. A listener can see what their Spotify music quality is set at by tapping Your Library, then Settings, and then Music Quality.
There is normal quality, which streams songs at about 96 kilobits per second (kbps). High quality streams at about 160 kbps and extreme quality streams at about 302 kbps. By default, Spotify is set to automatic quality, where it sets a quality based on the listener’s connection. Automatic quality is always at least 96 kbps.
Normal quality is when a 3-minute song will use 2 MB of data. On high quality, it will use 3.5 MB, and on extreme quality, it will use 7.5 MB. However, these numbers decrease when playing songs the user has already listened to before, because Spotify caches those songs.
What Is Typical Monthly Data Usage with Spotify?
If the listener uses Spotify for 30 minutes per day, it will consume 0.5 GB on its normal quality setting and 2.2 GB on its extreme quality setting. One hour of listening per day will use 1.2 GB for normal quality and 4.5 GB for extreme quality. Two hours per day will use 2.4 GB for normal quality and 9 GB for extreme quality.
What About Offline Playlists?
Although the free and premium versions of Spotify use the same amount of data, Spotify Premium also allows the user to download up to 3,333 songs. That’s a per-device limit, and they can do this with up to three devices. After downloading songs, it doesn’t require an internet connection or any data to play them.
How Does Spotify Data Use Compare to YouTube Data Use?
Since YouTube provides video content, it will use more data than Spotify. On their lowest quality settings, one hour of Spotify streaming will use 40 MB of data, whereas one hour of YouTube streaming will use 100 MB of data. On their medium quality settings, Spotify uses 70 MB and YouTube uses 250 MB. On their high quality settings, Spotify uses 150 MB and YouTube uses 750 MB.
How Can a Listener Use Less Data with Spotify?
Keeping data usage on Spotify to a minimum is easy with its quality settings. The listener simply needs to tap Your Library, Settings and Music Quality. Then, they can choose either automatic or normal.
The listener can also opt to only download music through Wi-Fi networks by turning off the Download Using Cellular option. This option is available in the same area as the Music Quality controls.
How Much Does Spotify Pay
Of course, Spotify Premium users can save data by downloading songs when connected to a Wi-Fi network, since they won't need to use any data to play those songs going forward.