Extend Premium Student After 4 Years

[Ampz]

Plan

Premium Student

My Question or Issue

Please extend Premium Student. I have had Spotify since 2016 and also have been a student since 2015. I am still (unfortunately) still a student in university. I am no longer allowed to have the student pricing since I have had it for 4 years. What is the purpose of this cap on years for students? Some of us don't graduate right on time. As long as I have a valid student email address, I don't see what is the issue. I don't want to have to switch to Apple Music just to get the cheaper price, but I can't afford 10$ a month while in Uni for Spotify, despite loving the service. 

I know I am not the only one who has posted this request, but it always gets turned down when people request for this. It is just senseless to limit people even when they meet the rest of the credentials.

[Ver]

Hey @muhammedoztunc,

Thanks for posting here.

It's a good idea to try clearing the cache and cookies and then to try again activating the student discount here.

If nothing changes, we'd suggest you try in an incognito window to see if that helps.

If you get an error message, you can send us a screenshot of it. Just make sure that any sensitive or private info is hidden. We'll look into this further.

Let us know how it goes.

[9_2lnjm-lo42o]

I completely agree with this I think it’s an absolute disgrace to offer “student discount” then limit it to how long someone can be classed as a student for. This shouldn’t be allowed. 

[Photolarry]

Sadly not all students finish after 4 years and this stupid company should offer discounts as long as I can prove I am in college regardless of if it is bachelors or masters or phd.  The fact they limit this to 4 years is greedy and stupid.  I formally think this app should be ashamed! 

[abrahima7]

Honestly everyone just cancel and switch to apple music after your 4 years are up. And promote those that you know to do the same. The only way they'd care enough to change the policy is if they see a tangible loss in subscribers.

[Altay1]

Hi, I would also like to give a feedback to this situation, because I think the more people respond or tell their opinion, the clearer it gets to those who make the decisions about these kind of rules. I study in Switzerland and academic education takes longer than 4 years, that's for sure. So here is my argument: Spotify wants to help the students with this pricing option. They want to help the STUDENTS. And a 6th year student is just as "student" as a 1st year student. It's ridiculous to even having to explain that. If you are not ready to help the STUDENT, then do not have an alternative pricing option for students. Simple as that. No one will complain and everyone will accept. But I really do not get that Spotify has the opinion, that an average student should complete his/her education in 4 years. I study medicine and try finishing that in 4 years in Switzerland. Quality service is not about average clients, it's about having the ability to adapt to your clients' needs. I will have to switch as well. Unfortunately. I am/was a pretty happy costumer. But I simply can't get my head around the fact, that there is no more student pricing for me, although I have a valid student verification document in my hands.

Have a good one.

[olivian777]

You could really help a lot of us out by being flexible and understanding that out world is a very evolving place in which people are starting to take longer for their degrees. 

The way you could help is by changing your four year maximum for this service 

Cheers,

A Very Dissapointed and Broke Student. (who also now feels bad because Spotify is telling them they've been a student for "too long")

[yeet_haw]

I used the student discount when I was in high school, so when I started at university I was ineligible 🤡

[ruthb0102]

Although the average Bachelor's degree in the US is designed to take 4 years, the reality of how long it takes to earn said degree is different. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (2016), only 37.5% of 2015 graduates who earned their Bachelor's degree at a traditional 4-year institution graduated within 4 years. That means that over 60% of students who earned their Bachelor's degree in 2015 earned it in more than 4 years, more than the cap on how long a student can benefit from a Spotify Student discount. (https://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport11/)

These statistics do not even take into account further degrees. According to the US Census in 2019, about 13.1% of American adults have earned degrees higher than Bachelor's (Masters, Doctorate, professional degree). These individuals, therefore, are students for even longer than 4 years. (https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/02/number-of-people-with-masters-and-phd-degrees-double-...) 

I could go on and discuss poverty rates in students earning degrees or how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted time to degree, but I know that it likely wouldn't make a difference. All I ask is that you greatly reconsider the hard cap of 4 years on the Spotify Student discount. More and more Americans (I cannot speak on other countries, but I would not be surprised if this is the case elsewhere too) are taking longer to complete a Bachelor's degree and/or pursuing further degrees and are students for longer than 4 years.

[kcook35]

Hey! So actually if you go to college for developmental psychology, which based on your answer and lack of understanding for how college works, I don’t think you do. However you’d learn that an undergraduate degree takes about 6 years on average, not 4. You should take this into account and extend your student plan to 6 years. Maybe do your research before responding and spreading misinformation! 

[SilentReaprr]

Looks like I'll be switching to Apple Music or Tidal for the first time ever. Nice going Spotify lol.

[LolitaBirkin]

The only real answer is to make the student premium indefinite.  It should last from high school to doctoral candidacy. The reason why I say indefinite is because that just means spotify doesn’t have to investigate the reasons to why people stay in education longer than 4 years. 

its short sighted and ableist to just allow us to drift over  to Apple Music, which is better for iPhone users because you can actually configure it with iOS 

[izi-thomas]

I've just raised the same issue regarding the 4 year student membership cap with their support service today. They couldn't give me an answer (obviously) and directed me here with the lovely message of :

"Rest assured that your voice resounds in our ears and it will never be left unheard.".

After reading all these messages in this chain I'm struggling to see how our voices are resounding in their ears..? This has been an issue since May 2021 by the looks of things? I love Spotify and have been a loyal customer for years, and I really don't want to give up my membership, but a 100% increase in price is a lot for students who are on little to no income. There are many degrees that are longer than 4 years, including people who go on to study masters (they are still in full-time education and therefore won't necessarily have a job). Plus, medicine degrees - they are 5 years long minimum? This is all just really confusing. 

[izi-thomas]

If anything, degrees can get more intense as they go along, so the students in their later years will have less opportunity to work and earn income and so should definitely be able to have the discount! Whoever is in charge of this just hasn't thought about the student population at all. 

[Xxkelly00]

Well that’s super unfair. Everyone works at different paces. To make me feel the pressure of graduating in 4 years and retracting my student benefits is wrong. I pay so much for school on Spotify can’t even go over four years of student premium. The average length can be four years but it’s not always four years. Some students drop out after the first semester, yet here I am persistently pursuing a degree for years and I can’t even have any praise for that? My benefits are getting taken away? So wrong by the companies doing. I’m still a student regardless and I have my university to prove that. 

[disappointed5]

Adding to the list - Spotify, where is 4 years average? 4 years is generally the MINIMUM.  I have been a full time college student for 6, going on 7 years, and just because I hit 4 years does not mean I suddenly have a post-grad income.

[moeig]

I can only conclude that student accounts result in a loss of profit.. which would make the hard stance of four year understandable.

Anyway, I'm now switching to a different platform due to this.

[m2022]

Adding to the slew of disappointment... grad student here, pursuing JD + PhD (+6-8 years)... so even though I'm a full-time student I can't be counted as one after my bachelors because that's what "most programs are?" Ludicrous and disappointing. 

[apli_555 · Accepted solution]

yessss!! agreed!! or some of us go on to higher education!! we should be covered as long as we are in school and taking the required amount of credits!!!

[obvious_congmin]

Hope this gets changed so you can actually help low-income students. However it seems you guys just don't care about poor people that much

[ubls]

agreed! just got the email it's ending but i'm still a student. not cool spotify 😕