Sawasdee Spotify: The World's Largest Online Music Streaming Service is Finally in Thailand
It’s finally here. Since its initial launch in 2008 Spotify, has made its way to Thailand, making it the 61st country where the streaming service has launched service. This is substantial for Thai music users as well as users that had been using Spotify aboard and couldn’t continue using it after moving back such as myself. The timing is great as music streaming has taken off in Thailand in recent years and local audiences have become more exposed to such service thanks to Joox.
While global names such as Apple Music and Tidal are open for Thai users, none have done the same type of marketing towards the Thai audience as Joox did, resulting in Joox holding up to 56% of the market share in Thailand. In comes Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming service, giving Thais more options for international and local music and giving Joox a bit of a sweat.
For those of you who are not familiar with Spotify, it is simply a digital music streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs, videos, and podcasts from artists all around the world. Here are some fast facts about the business:
Active Users: Over 140 million (as of June 2017)
Subscribers: Over 60 million (as of June 2017)
Number of Songs: Over 30 million
Number of Playlists: Over 2 billion
So as you can see Spotify is not something you should look over. With an arsenal of songs this large and a vast variety of playlists to play with, it is worth just to download and test it for free.
For the best listening experience, make sure to activate "Crossfade", so Spotify will be crossfading from track to track and there won't be any pauses between songs. In case you use Shazam, make sure to connect it to Spotify, as every time you Shazam a song you can automatically have it added to its own Spotify playlist. And last but not least, make use of the "Collaborative Playlist" feature that let's you create playlists that you can share and edit together with friends.
Like any music streaming service, Spotify offers both a free option and paid subscription. The free option lets you access the millions of songs through both your computer and smartphone without having to download or save the songs on your phone. There will, however, be ads every once in a while, and you will be able to skip songs to up to only 3 times.
Which brings us to the premium subscription that comes in two options of 129 THB/month for one user and a family package of 199 THB/month for up to 6 users. This will eliminate ads, gives you unlimited skips, access to all the songs, and allows you to download for offline use anywhere on you smartphone. To get started, just go to www.spotify.com, create your account, and listen away. Spotify offers a 30 day free trial for new users so give it a shot!
