How to get Spotify for less by sharing with a friend

spotify
(Image credit: Spotify)

If you live with someone who uses Spotify Premium, you could save money on your own subscription by signing up to Spotify Premium Duo, the latest subscription tier from the music streaming service. 

The feature allows two people to share one Spotify subscription plan, while still retaining their own individual Premium accounts and logins, allowing you to save on the cost without sacrificing the freedom of listening without ads and creating your own playlists.

Costing $12.99 / £12.99  / AU$15.99 per month, it's considerably cheaper than buying two separate Premium subscriptions, which cost $9.99 / £9.99 / AU$11.99 per month each. If you share the cost with your listening buddy, you're looking at less than $7 /£7 / AU$8 per month to get ad-free Spotify and on-demand listening to tracks in any order you want.

Subscribers to Premium Duo will also get access to Duo Mix, an auto-generated playlist based on the listening habits of both you and your buddy.

Music for two

There is one caveat – you must reside at the same address as your listening buddy to be eligible for Spotify Duo, so no sharing with your long distance lover. 

If there's more than two Spotify users in your household, you could also sign up for a Spotify Premium for Family account, which allows up to six people to connect to Spotify at one time (if you try to do this with a regular account, you’ll get bumped off the service as soon as another user plays a song). 

This tier costs $14.99 / £14.99 / AU$17.99, and again, requires all members to live under the same roof. 

Spotify says that upgrading to Premium Duo won't get rid of your existing Premium account, so you'll still have access to your saved music, podcasts, playlists, and song recommendations. 

If you're a Spotify Premium user already, you can switch to Premium Duo by heading to your account page and changing your subscription type. 

Never used Premium before? You may be eligible to get the first month of Premium Duo for free, so you can try before you buy.

Olivia Tambini

Olivia was previously TechRadar's Senior Editor - Home Entertainment, covering everything from headphones to TVs. Based in London, she's a popular music graduate who worked in the music industry before finding her calling in journalism. She's previously been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live on the subject of multi-room audio, chaired panel discussions on diversity in music festival lineups, and her bylines include T3, Stereoboard, What to Watch, Top Ten Reviews, Creative Bloq, and Croco Magazine. Olivia now has a career in PR.