Spotify Usage Guide

Spotify is a well-known music streaming service that I hadn’t used before. Recently, I wanted to find a better music app and decided to switch to Spotify. Here are my notes on the experience.

Introduction

Using Spotify has certain hurdles, which I’ll explain here.

1. Due to restrictions in China’s network environment, you can’t use it normally without a proxy. I recommend using Surge/Shadowrocket or third-party VPN services to solve the network issues

2. Listening to music is free, but features are limited. You need to pay for the full experience. Personally, I don’t mind paying for quality services at reasonable prices, so this is acceptable

   

3. The app isn’t available in the Chinese App Store, so you need a foreign Apple ID to download it

If you accept and solve these issues, you can get started.

Registration

When registering for Spotify, it detects your network. Using a proxy may trigger an error message: Your account was not created. Your device appears to be connected to a proxy or VPN service. Please turn off such services and try again. The direct reason is that many proxy IPs are flagged and identified as cloud providers or crawlers, so they’re recognized as proxies.

I used a VMess service from a friend in Macau for registration. I recommend first using https://whoer.net/ to check your local network, ensuring the IP shows the target region and the ISP appears normal (not a cloud provider). DNS requirements aren’t strict - in my tests, showing China or the US worked fine.

With different regional proxies, register an account on the corresponding country’s website. Pay attention to the URL, for example:

https://www.spotify.com/tw/signup

https://www.spotify.com/hk-zh/signup

https://www.spotify.com/us/signup

After successful registration, you can use Spotify’s free service.

Usage

Here are a few things to note when using Spotify:

1. You can change your region in Profile, but only if you haven’t subscribed to Premium yet. I chose to change mine to the Philippines.
   • You can only switch to the region of your current proxy network. For example, with a US proxy, you can switch to the US region; with a Philippines proxy, you can switch to the Philippines region
   • I recommend LightNode VPS, which provides servers in the Philippines and other locations
2. The iOS version of Spotify allows you to set the language independently of your system language
3. Newly registered accounts receive a limited premium service for about two weeks, after which they revert to the free tier with ads

Premium Membership

I recommend going with the family plan, with the Philippines region offering the lowest price. I’m currently using a Philippines region group plan (21 CNY/quarter).

A few things to note:

1. Joining a family plan requires an email account from the same region, but no password. When clicking the invitation link, you need to be in the same region (e.g., Philippines). After clicking the invitation link, you’ll be prompted to enter the family address in the member’s region, which can be provided by the plan owner. Upon success, you’ll receive a confirmation like this:

   

2. If you don’t want to join a group plan, you can consider buying an individual membership. As seen below, the Philippines region is the cheapest

3. Setting up your own premium payment has certain hurdles. For example, Hong Kong region payments must use Hong Kong payment methods; PayPal requires a Hong Kong PayPal account, and mainland China Visa cards won’t work. I haven’t solved the payment issue yet, so joining a group plan is still an option.

4. The iOS version doesn’t support in-app purchases; I recommend subscribing through the web version

Price information from https://sspai.com/post/55367

Drawbacks

Spotify’s overall user experience is great, but I’ve found one drawback: Chinese lyrics don't support simplified Chinese

Other Music Services

1. NetEase Cloud Music - I used to like it a lot, but now it emphasizes social features too much, and it has copyright limitations, so I gave it up
2. QQ Music - Heavy on social features, and it shows ads even for premium members, which is unacceptable. Plus, when you just want to listen to music, it defaults to showing MV, live streams, etc. I’m amazed at the product manager’s decisions and no longer consider it
3. Apple Music - Searching for songs is painful. For example, you might not find Chinese artists by their Chinese names and must use their English names, which not everyone knows. It also has other drawbacks like incomplete lyrics, so I gave up on it
4. YouTube Music - Searching for songs/lyrics also has many limitations, so I abandoned it

It’s remarkable that in the 21st century, finding a usable music app is still difficult. Currently, Spotify seems to be the relatively optimal solution.

Conclusion

There’s always a reason why something becomes popular. Many people around me use this service, and after trying it, I find it quite good. So I’ve decided to continue using it.