Spotify Offline Mode - How does it work?

[SimonsCat]

Hello

I am planning to buy Spotify Premium in order to be able to listen to Spotify on my Android device. Before I do so, I have some questions I didn't find the answers for (yet).

1) When I've downloaded a playlist for offline mode, does it use my Internet connection for playing the playlist while being in online mode? In other words: Can I use offline playlists in online mode?

2) If I search for a specific album in Spotify (which I actually have in one of my offline playlists), does it stream from the Internet or use the offline playlist to play the songs?

3) If I have the same song in two different playlists I want to download, does it store the song on my device twice or just once? Does Spotify download each song individually or just the playlist in one file?

4) How much space does a 3-minute song downloaded for offline mode approximately use on my device?

EDIT: found the answer:

Quality 96 kbps => 0.72 MB per minute.
Quality 160 kbps => 1.2 MB per minute.
Quality 320 kbps => 2.4 MB per minute.

I hope you can help me and thanks in advance

Simon

[Adam · Accepted solution]

Hey there, welcome to the Community. Some answers:

1) It shouldn't do but there have been some reports of Spotify using data when it shouldn't. We'd recommend putting either your phone into Airplane mode or head into Spotify's Settings page and select Offline Mode.

2) Again, it should use your offline playlist if it's exactly the same version of the song. Most tracks in Spotify will have more than one version so you'd need to double-check you're searching the same album as in your playlists.

3) If it's the same version of the song it'll only count once no matter how many playlists you have it in. So if you have a one-minute track synced at 96 kbps, it'll take up 0.72MB whether you have it in one playlist or five.

Hope that helps! 🙂

[SimonsCat]

Thanks, you really helped me. The thing I don't like about offline mode is that you can't use the search feature, but I'll need to use offline playlists because I don't have an unlimited data plan. So I'm glad it works as I expected it to. I'm aware of the different song versions, but thanks for mentioning it. Have a nice day!

Simon

[yorkshireal]

Hi Adam or other experts:-)

Like Simon, I'm thinking of joining the premium version of Spotify so I can play music offline - although I have an unlimited data plan I mainly want to play music in my car, and I often get poor or not data signal. I have an Android HTC phone.

I'm confused as to how Spotify works - if I download music or playlists onto my phone when I'm on wifi in the house, does the track store itself on my phone, like it does with iTunes on an iPhone or iPod? Does that mean it will then behave much as an iPod does, in that I can play whatever music I have downloaded wherever I am, even offline? That sounds rather too good to be true for £10 a month with unlimited music!

Thanks

Alan

[Joe]

Hi @yorkshireal That's pretty much how it works. Of course any downloaded spotify music is encrypted and will only be playable while you have an active premium subscription but it is definitely awesome value 🙂

[yorkshireal]

Ah that makes sense! Thanks a lot for that Joe!

Alan

[Tnettesheim33]

Quick question on my Spotify. Is my offline mode on my iPhone separate from my offline mode on my laptop. Should they sync? It's only allowing 30 or so songs to show up offline. Is the offline mode based on the storage space on your phone? Or are the offline mode songs stored on your server? Thank you.

Thomas

[Peter__]

Offline mode content is stored on your device memory.

[SimonsCat]

Hi Thomas,

Offline mode works the same way on a phone as on a computer, but you can choose for each device differently which playlists or songs you want to make available for offline mode. Songs you download on your laptop aren't automatically downloaded on your phone, but the playlists are synced.

The songs are downloaded to your device storage. 

You can sync a maximum of 3,333 songs per device and stay offline for up to 30 days. Read more about Offline mode in the FAQ.

[TheValley]

Interesting thread.  One other question from a technical aspect...

In offline mode, if these files are embedded or watermarked with some encryption to play only with a subscription, does Spotify count all offline plays as streams when it's 'online' again and synced somehow?    I would think legally it has to as bands and artists are supposed to get some sort of royalties for streams.  

My ipod or iphone does this.  When I'm playing my Itunes library from the device only it will update on my desktop Itunes library when the devices resynces with Itunes.

Any 'know-how' out there?

thanks

[Peter__]

Spotify counts all plays even when offline and reports them for artist royalties when you are next online. 😉

[TheValley]

THanks for the info!  

That makes sense and I'm glad that's the way it's accounted.  Fair to everyone. 

[Lagouko]

Hi ,my questions: i have spotify in my android phone with 7 days of free premium (new user first 7 days free),so i download some music for offline..will i be able to listen to my downloaded lists even when the 7 days will be expired?and second question is, i have download about 170 tracks in the best quality and the storage that took all this music is 2.23gb,,dont you think is to much even in best quality?i mean it should be at least 1 gb less,,what i should check about that?  and third and last question,,in my music section or in playlists i have tracks that i cannot find them in albums section,,for example i download music from pharrell and it is in my music and it is in my playlists but they are not in the albums sectio,even that i download songs from that artist from 2 different albums.why is that???thank you.

[suekeene]

hi. i have Premium on my Android phone and can listen offline. but i cannot listen to my laptop offline. doesn't premium pay for all devices? how can i listen to my laptop offline? thanks.

[SimonsCat]

Reply to Lagouko :

1) As far as I know, the songs you download will be available for 30 days, before you have to go online again. This is however only if you turn offline mode on in the settings. If you don't, Spotify can still use your internet connection and check your subscription. So I assume the songs will be deleted after your free trial expired, can you confirm this?

2) I don't know, sorry.

3)  I guess the music only appears in the Your Music section if you add the whole album to your music, not just one song.

 

General notice: Look at the Spotify FAQ first. If it doesn't answer your question, I recommend searching the forum and then opening a new thread if your proplem can't be found. I do not recommend answering an old thread like this one, since it will probably not be seen by many people and those who contributed so far in this thread can't always help you with your questions.

[SimonsCat]

Reply to suekeene:

Yes, your premium subscription is for all your devices. Perhaps you need to log out and log in again on your laptop. If that doesn't help, I recommend opening a new thread here.

[Lagouko]

finnaly the songs for offline music was only for 7 days,,,i have to give my credit card for the first month free,and i didt kow that,,if i knew it i will never dowloaded so much music for nothig,,i will never pay to listen music in a world of freedom,and second is that spotify claims that it has to pay the artists,,i have friends groups inside spotify and solo artists that never got paid for their music from spotify even that spotify says "pay to download and listen your favorite artists"

[jeanninemr]

How can I figure out how much memory the playlists I've made available offline are taking up on my computer?

Thank you.

[Daniel]

Check the size of the folder: Android/data/com.spotify.mobile

this is where the cache saves to.

[junglepuma]

I have a question that I'm not sure if I'm just dense and reasking the questions these other users have asked... However, in your support articles it has a reminder to "turn off offline mode anytime you want to stream." So, here is my question. When I turn Offline Mode off...the green arrows next to my songs disappear which make me feel as if they are no longer saved to my device? And if so and I have to go into offline mode somewhere without a WiFi signal, will I still be able to listen to the songs I originally downloaded in offline mode without using data to REdownload everytime I switch from streaming to offline?