How Can I Download Music From Spotify? A Complete Guide
Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming platforms, with millions of songs available on demand. However, many Spotify users want to know how they can download music from Spotify for listening offline or transferring to other devices.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about downloading music from Spotify, including the benefits, what content can be downloaded, how to download on mobile and desktop apps, and some frequently asked questions. Read on to become a downloading pro!
Benefits of Downloading from Spotify
Here are some of the major benefits of downloading Spotify music:
– Listen offline: Downloads allow you to listen to Spotify music and podcasts without an internet connection, like on a plane.
– Save mobile data: Instead of streaming songs over cellular data, you can save data usage by listening to downloads.
– Transfer music: Downloads make it easy to transfer Spotify music to external devices.
– Playlists for life: Your downloaded Spotify playlists remain available even if the songs are removed from Spotify’s catalogue.
– Quality: Downloads play at the same high audio quality as streaming in Spotify Premium.
What Content Can I Download?
Spotify allows Premium subscribers to download music for offline playback. Here’s what content can be downloaded:
– Songs: Any song in Spotify’s catalogue is available for download, over 70 million in total across genres.
– Albums: You can download entire albums instead of individual songs.
– Playlists: Spotify playlists created by you, Spotify, or other users can be downloaded.
However, note that Spotify has certain downloading restrictions on some content, like not allowing downloads of music from local files or podcast episodes over 100 MB in size. Overall though, there is a vast library available of streamable Spotify music that can be downloaded.
How to Download Music in the Spotify Mobile App
The Spotify mobile app for iOS and Android platforms includes a Download button for songs, albums or playlists. Follow these steps:
1. Open the Spotify app and find a song, album or playlist you want to download.
2. Tap on the Download button – it’s a down arrow inside a circle icon.
3. If asked, select the audio quality. We recommend high quality unless you have limited storage space.
4. A moving green line will appear on tracks that are downloading. When it switches to a green tick icon, the download is complete.
5. To find downloads, tap on Your Library and select Downloads. Here you can play music and see the download status and storage space used.
Note that if you have Spotify Free on mobile, you can only play downloads in Shuffle mode.
How to Download on the Spotify Desktop App
Downloading music in the Spotify desktop app works similarly to on mobile. Here’s how:
1. Open the Spotify desktop app and play a song, album or playlist you want to download.
2. Click on the Down Arrow icon next to the Follow button.
3. Select Download. If given options, choose the audio quality and file format.
4. A moving green line will show the download progress. When complete, the Down Arrow becomes green.
5. Clicking on Collection then Downloads will show your available downloads to play offline.
An advantage of the desktop app is you can choose where downloads are saved and add local audio files to Spotify playlists.
How Many Downloads Are Possible?
Spotify officially allows up to 10,000 songs to be downloaded per device across 5 devices. So technically you could have 50,000 songs downloaded at once between 5 phones/computers.
However, actual download limits can depend on the storage space available on your devices. For most users though, 10,000 song capacity offers plenty of playlists for offline listening.
How Long Do Downloads Last?
Spotify tracks when each download was last played. Downloads will remain available indefinitely as long as you access them at least once every 30 days.
If 30 days pass without playing a download, Spotify will automatically remove it to save storage capacity. But any removed download can simply be downloaded again if still available in Spotify’s catalogue.
Essentially downloads last forever, as long as you play them periodically. You don’t need to be online or have internet connectivity to play Spotify downloads and renew their 30-day timers.
FAQs About Downloading from Spotify
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about downloading music from Spotify:
How much storage space do Spotify downloads use?
This varies based on the runtime of songs and encoding quality. As a rough estimate, 10 hours of high-quality music downloads take up around 5 GB of storage.
Does Spotify download songs as MP3 files?
No, downloads use Ogg Vorbis encrypted files at 320kbps bitrate for high audio quality with smaller file size. But they cannot be exported as standalone mp3 files.
Can I use Spotify downloads on another device?
No, downloaded Spotify music includes DRM protection and can only be played in the Spotify apps they were downloaded in. Streaming allows playing music everywhere, downloads play offline in the app.
Does downloading songs save mobile data?
Yes! Downloading songs instead of streaming them can save a significant amount of mobile data usage, ideal for limited data plans. Just remember to renew downloads once per month.
Do I need to be a paying Spotify Premium subscriber to download?
Yes, downloading requires an active Spotify Premium subscription. Non-paying Spotify Free users cannot download, only stream with ads.
So that covers everything you need to know about how to download songs, albums and playlists from Spotify for offline listening! We explained the key benefits, what content can be downloaded, how to download in mobile and desktop apps, number of downloads possible, duration limits, and some frequently asked downloading questions.
Now you have the complete guide to turn Spotify into a portable jukebox. Start building your offline music collection today. Feel free to reach out with any other downloading or Spotify-related questions!
