Spotify is the world’s most popular music and podcast streaming service for a reason. It has a catalog of over 100 million songs, the interface is fun and easy to use, and it’s full of features that allow for music discovery, great playlist creation, and sharing. And while its main Achilles heel is that it doesn’t offer higher resolution audio like many of its competitors such as Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music, it’s Premium tiers are reasonably priced at between $10 and $16 per month. So why would anyone want to cancel Spotify?
Maybe you want to switch and try something new. Maybe you’re like so many others and are getting into collecting vinyl. Or maybe you just want to save a little money and try Spotify Free for a bit. Before you rush into that though, keep in mind that you won’t be able to download music for offline use if you drop down to Spotify Free. You also won’t be able to stream audio at a higher bit rate or play any song on demand when using your mobile device, but instead have to shuffle playing an artist, album, or playlist.
But, if you’re mind’s set on canceling Spotify Premium, here’s how to do it.
How to cancel Spotify Premium on desktop
Step 1: The first thing you’re going to want to do is to fire up your browser of choice and head over to spotify.com/account, which should open automatically in the Account Overview section on Spotify’s website.
If you use the Spotify desktop app, accessing your Account settings from the drop-down menu will also open a browser window and get you to the same place. This cannot be done using the smartphone app, though.
Step 2: Now you’re at your Account overview screen, select Available plans from the sidebar on the left. A box will then appear with information about your current membership and other plans available.
Step 3: Scroll down to the bottom and locate the option entitled Spotify Free. It’s at the very bottom. Click the big Cancel Premium button below it.
Step 4: Now all that’s left to do is confirm your decision by tapping Continue to cancel and following through the confirmations. Again, remember that your membership won’t terminate immediately. You’ll have through the end of your paid subscription date to continue using it.
Step 5: Note: Canceling your Spotify account using an Android device is pretty much the same as doing it on a desktop — it’s done via a web browser on the device.
How to cancel Spotify Premium through an iOS device
If you signed up for Spotify on your iPad or iPhone, you’ve opted to have Apple bill you right through them, instead of prolonging the registration process by handing your credit card details over to Spotify itself. There’s no denying it’s a lot more convenient, but taking that route means you’ll need to cancel your Premium subscription in a slightly different way, using an iPad or iPhone, but you cannot do it through the Spotify iOS app. Here’s how.
Step 1: Open the Settings application on your iPad or iPhone, then select Your name at the top to access your Apple ID and account and all that.
Step 2: Below your profile name, you’ll see a list of options, and at the bottom, you’ll see Subscriptions. Choose that.
Step 3: Here you’ll see a list of all your Active subscriptions, where you should see Spotify. It will include information like the date on which it is scheduled to renew. Select Spotify.
Step 4: Here, at the bottom, you’ll see a button to Cancel Subscription. Tap that and confirm your cancellation. You’re done. You’ll still be able to use the service until that renewal date that was there.
How to delete your Spotify account
Once you’ve canceled your Spotify Premium account and are now a “free” subscriber, if you want to go that one step further and delete your account permanently, here’s how.
Step 1: Log in to your Spotify account the same way we mentioned above, by going to the Spotify website in a browser — this cannot be done in the desktop or mobile apps.
Step 2: If you’re a Free user, you’ll find a section called Close Account. Find that or use our link.
Step 3: There, click the Close my account and delete my data big green button. This will open a Message us chat window where you can follow the deletion steps, which will include agreeing to lose your saved songs and data.
Step 4: You’ll get an email from Spotify with a link you can follow to Close My Account. Once you click this, your account will be shut down after a week. You’ll later get another email giving you the option to reactivate your account in a week should you have cancellation remorse. After that week is up, it’s gone.
Editors’ Recommendations
Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews