Spotify aims to offer users the choice of a free ad-supported service, or an ad-free Premium subscription service. Users can listen for free, or, alternatively, they can upgrade to Spotify Premium R59.99 per month.

Spotify aims to allow users to browse, discover, curate playlists, build their own music collection and share music with friends. With a catalogue of over 35 million songs all available to both free users and subscribers, Spotify comes to South Africa, aiming to offer the best in both local and international music.

"Spotify is very excited to announce its launch in South Africa today. We have had the continent in our sights for a while and are finally able to offer South African fans access to all the music they already love on Spotify, while helping them to enjoy, discover and share new music from both local and international artists, simply and easily," says Michael Krause, Spotify MD, EMEA.

According to Spotify, South African users will have instant access to a range of local playlists curated and updated by Spotify's team of music professionals, including Hip Hop Juice, Top Hits South Africa, House Nation, iGqom Le and SA Gold.

Music personalisation and discovery features

A feature of the Spotify service is its personalisation, which aims to allow users to find the music they already enjoy with ease, and will also aim to help them discover new music and artists, based on their taste and listening patterns. When a new user joins Spotify, it takes them through a ‘Taste Onboarding’ process, which aims to help Spotify learn more about users' music tastes.

Personalised discovery features include Daily Mix, a series of playlists combining a user's favourite tracks; Release Radar, which is a playlist of new music based on the artists a user follows and listens to most, updated every Friday; and Discover Weekly, which is a playlist based on a user's unique listening habits (coming soon).

Spotify allows users to listen while they play

With Spotify available on PlayStation Music™, individuals will have a way to stream music on their PlayStation 4 while gaming. They can listen to any song, album or playlist on demand, or even control Spotify through the Quick Menu without interrupting the game.

Spotify also offers:
  • mood and genre playlist hubs, which means users can go to Browse to choose from a range of hubs including Workout, Chill, Party, Focus, Gaming, Sleep, Dinner, Kids and many more
  • automatic low bitrate streaming in South Africa: Spotify’s default setting for data streaming in South Africa is 24kbps 
  • offline listening for Premium users allows users to ‘download’ their music to their mobile device or desktop while they're online or offline, and 
  • High audio quality for Premium users – up to 320 kbps.
Spotify also offers social features, allowing users to:
  • share integration via Facebook and Twitter
  • share and make collaborative playlists on Facebook Messenger
  • share their own playlists and favourite songs from the app
  • use global streaming charts 
  • download the Spotify app on mobile, laptop and tablet
  • listen via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speakers, Amazon Echo, Sonos, Bose, TV, Google Chromecast, Sony PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 consoles, Microsoft Xbox, Samsung, Google Home, Waze, Carplay and many others, and  
  • use background play, which allows the app to run in the background.
Spotify has delivered more than €8-billion to the music industry since first launching in 2008. Following the launch in South Africa, and the launches in Vietnam, Romania and Israel, Spotify is now available in 65 markets worldwide.

For more information, visit www.spotify.com. You can also follow Spotify on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram. Join the conversation by using the #SpotifyAfrica hashtag.