Spotify is the most popular digital music streaming app in the world. It provides users with immediate access to millions of songs. One of the more popular questions regarding Macs involves whether they can directly download music from Spotify.
Spotify indeed is capable of allowing offline listening; however, how this works and what its limitations are would depend on whether one has a free or a premium Spotify account.
Below we will look at the different possibilities and limitations of downloading Spotify onto a Mac. Also, get to know about how you can download music from Spotify on Mac.
Key Takeaways
- Offline downloads are only available with a Premium subscription.
- Downloaded music can only be played within the Spotify app.
- Ensure you have sufficient storage space on your Mac.
- You need to go online occasionally to maintain downloads.
- Downloaded content cannot be transferred to other devices.
Download Capabilities Of Spotify: An Exploration
Spotify’s features differ depending on the subscription type used. Among the clear advantages for Spotify Premium subscribers are offline listening capabilities.
Spotify clients can download single tracks, full albums, and precomposed playlists to their host devices. However, this particular feature is accessible only through the application itself.
Hence, any music downloaded can only be played using the Spotify application itself and is neither transferable nor playable by other devices or players.
Spotify’s gigantic library can be utilized by free users, but they cannot download music for offline usage. It gets a little inconvenient with the free plan; you might have bad connectivity, or you want to save data, and it only allows streaming on an active internet connection.
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How To Download Music From Spotify On Mac?
If you have a Spotify Premium subscription and you want to download music to your Mac, follow these steps to access the songs in offline mode:
- Spotify Installation: Spotify needs to be installed on your Mac.
- Login: When you open the Spotify app, it asks you to log in using your Premium account credentials. You cannot download any songs for offline use if you don’t have a Premium Account.
- Select Music: Go to an album, playlist, or podcast that you want to download. You have the option in Spotify to download entire albums, playlists, or podcasts for offline listening.
- Download Music: Once you have chosen your music, locate the “Download” button or toggle switch. This button is at the top for playlists. Click it to start downloading.
- Download Status: Spotify will initiate the downloading of the selected content. You can monitor this progress within “Your Library” by selecting the “Downloads” tab. You will see a list of the things you have downloaded here.
- Listen Offline: Once the download is complete, you will can to access your music at any time without depending on an internet connection. Just head to “Your Library” and click the “Downloads” tab where your offline content will appear.
Limitations and Considerations
You need to look at some limitations you might experience when downloading music from Spotify on Mac. Get a quick overview of these limitations.
- Playback Restrictions: The playing of downloaded music is limited to the Spotify application. You can transfer downloaded files to other media and devices.
- Subscription Requirement: Spotify allows offline listening only to its premium subscribers. Free subscribers cannot download songs for offline use.
- Storage Space: You need to make sure your Mac has adequate storage space for downloaded content. Extended playlists and albums take up a lot of space.
- Offline Mode: Even after downloading, you will have to go online from time to time to validate your subscription to keep the download active.
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Spotify Free vs. Premium
Spotify has two main account types, namely, Free vs Premium. Each of these account types has distinctive features targeted at different user needs. Look below to find out the difference between Spotify free and premium.
Spotify Free:
- Stream Only: Free users stream music with the help of an internet connection but cannot download music for offline use. This might be uneasy if the data connection is small or somehow poor.
- Ads: Free includes irregular ads between songs. Users can’t skip these ads as frequently as they’d want.
- Skips Limited: Users in free have a limited number of skips per hour and are very often restricted to shuffle play on mobile devices, limiting control over playback.
- Lower Sound Quality: In Free, the sound quality is poorer compared to Premium, and this, in turn, can affect overall listening pleasure.
- No Offline Access: There is no offline access, and an internet connection is continuously required to listen to music. This can be a considerable drawback.
Spotify Premium:
- Downloads Offline: With Premium, you can download your songs, albums, and playlists for offline playback. Users like this capability, as one can enjoy the tracks without being online, especially when travelling or out of reach of stable internet connectivity.
- Ad-Free Experience: It’s ad-free with Premium, uninterrupted listening. That makes it an even smoother experience without breaks.
- Free Skips: The capability to skip tracks freely and as many times as one wants.
- High-Quality Sound: There is increased sound quality, including high-resolution audio, which is quite important for those who want better reliability in the sound they listen to.
We hope you know the difference between Spotify Free and Spotify Premium. But if you still have questions in mind, you can ask a social media expert like RealLikes. They have a great understanding of all social media services.
FAQs
Conclusion
While Spotify's offline listening is powerful for Premium subscribers, it's limited to the Spotify application on your Mac. That is to say, the ability to download and listen to your music offline is great, but certain perimeters come into play.
You can get the most from your Spotify Premium subscription by following certain steps that show you exactly how to take advantage of Spotify's offline features and listen to your favorite music when you're not connected to the internet.
