Spotify Just Slashed Its Monthly Premium Rate in Half for Students

Streaming music service Spotify just trained its marketing lasers on the stateside matriculated. If you’re a college student living in the U.S., in other words, the company says it’s slashing its top “Spotify Premium” tier to just $5 a month. That’s down from the regular $10 everyone else has to pay.

It sounds like a no-strings-attached bargain, too. Students get Spotify’s premiere subscription tier for half the regular cost, and the deal is good for a year from time of enrollment — no obligations or gotchas. Spotify Premium includes access to the company’s 20 million-song catalog without ads, access across multiple devices (including mobile ones), downloadable playlists and offline listening, and the option to turn up sound quality to 320 Kbps (currently the max).

You’ll have to be enrolled with what Spotify calls “US Title IV accredited institutions in the United States.” I’m pretty sure that means most if not all universities, but it doesn’t include private or public elementary or secondary schools according to the U.S. Department of Education’s accreditation explainer.

To validate would-be partakers, Spotify says in the terms and conditions that it’s using SheerID, a service that’ll ask for information like your name, date of birth and educational institution. Spotify adds that “a limited number of Student Discount Offers are available, while supplies last,” which I read as Spotify reserving the right to rescind the deal at any time if the response is overwhelming.

Interestingly, Spotify says that at the close of your 12-month student period, you’ll automatically be enrolled in the full-price, $10-a-month plan “unless you activate another Student Discount Offer.” Does that mean you can keep the $5 a month rate as long as you’re a student and past your initial 12-month period? Sounds like it. I’ve asked Spotify to verify this, and I’ll update this piece as soon I hear back.

Update: My Spotify contact confirms that the program is intended to cover “any student in four-year, two-year or junior college for the duration of their schooling.” Just bear in mind, if you sign up for this plan, that you’ll have to re-validate your student status every 12 months (and if you do nothing, you’ll be auto-switched to the full-price plan).

You can check out the student discount plan here.