How to Download Spotify Music on Free & Premium and Enable the Offline Mode

Updated by Adam Gorden on Mar 15, 2023 11:14 AM.
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If you are a Spotify Premium subscriber, you should be familiar with Spotify Offline Mode. It allows you to download and stream Spotify playlists and albums to any device, so you can listen to Spotify offline without a Wi-Fi or Internet connection. That's, indeed, a fantastic feature especially when you have limited access to a network.

However, this feature is not applicable to those Free users. So, can you listen to Spotify offline without Premium? In this post, you will get a positive answer. We will introduce an ultimate solution to help you play Spotify offline without Premium. Of course, Spotify Premium subscribers can also use this efficient Spotify downloader to enjoy Spotify songs for free. In addition, we are happy to show you how to use Spotify Offline Mode to listen to Spotify music.

listen to spotify offline without premium

Part 1. Can You Listen to Spotify Music Offline without Premium?
Part 2. Listen to Spotify Music Offline - Premium & Free Users
     2.1 Ajdust Download Audio Quality on Desktop & Mobile
     2.1 Download Spotify Music on Desktop & Mobile
     2.3 Play Spotify Downloads in Offline Mode on Desktop & Mobile
Part 3. Download Spotify Music Files - Premium & Free Users
Part 4. Spotify Offline Mode VS ViWizard Music Downloader - Which Is Better?

Part 1. Can You Listen to Spotify Music Offline without Premium?

With the Spotify app for desktop or mobile, both Premium and Free can download Spotify music tracks for offline play. While Premium subscribers enjoy the unlimited download service, Free users can only download podcasts from the Spotify official.

On Premium:

For starters you have the ability to download any on-demand music contents from Spotify Music if you have Premium subscription. With your Premium subscription, you can pick either the desktop or mobile device that runs the Spotify app to download songs, playlists, podcasts, radio stations, audiobooks and more. Once you have downloaded songs, you can enable the Offline Mode to play it without no internet.

On Free:

If you don't have the Premium subscription and use the free version of Spotify instead, you're allowed to download podcasts. If you wish to listen to other contents offline, you should scroll to Part 3 to download the desired music tracks into actual files. A powerful Music Converter can download almost any contents you request for, and you can even tell it which output format you want for your devices. So you can put the music files to even all your devices.

What You Need:

You can download the desired contents by using either cellular data or Wi-Fi network. To speed up the download up, you'll want to use an available Wi-Fi network instead of cellular data. Both Premium and Free users can download as many as 10,000 tracks on each of up to 5 different devices.

Part 2. Listen to Spotify Music Offline - Premium & Free Users

Downloading your favorite music from Spotify to play offline might seem like a simple task, especially if your Premium subscription is active, but there're some precautions.

Before get started, you'll want to know what you can download on Spotify and the audio quality you can choose for your downloads. So you can make changes to ensure your entire download task.

Download music contents: Playlist Songs, Albums, Podcasts, Radio stations, Audiobooks

For starters, you won't be able to download individual songs on Spotify, but you should create a playlist based on the songs you want and download them in bulk. In addition to playlist songs, you can also download albums, podcasts (for both Premium and Free users), radio stations and audiobooks. Once the songs are downloaded to your device, you can find and play them in the offline mode even without the internet.

2.1 Ajdust Download Audio Quality on Desktop & Mobile

Please consider which audio quality you want for your Spotify downloads. There're 5 options for Premium to choose as Download audio quality for music: Automatic Low, Normal, High and Very high. If you're downloading podcast, the podcast quality is equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s on all devices. Higher quality uses more storage.

Download audio quality: Automatic, Low, Normal, High, Very high

Automatic: Depending on your network connection
Low: Equivalent to approximately 24kbit/s
Normal: Equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s
High: Equivalent to approximately 160kbit/s
Very high: Equivalent to approximately 320kbit/s

Note: You can't change audio settings when using Spotify Connect to play on another device, or you won't access the Audio Quality in Settings.

Spotify Connect enabled on desktop:

spotify desktop current device

Spotify Connect enabled on mobile:

spotify connect now playing device settings

Please make sure to pick the device you want to download Spotify as the current device: Settings > Devices > *Your Device's Name* (ex: This iPhone).

To change download quality on desktop:

spotify desktop change download audio quality

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. Click the Profile icon > Settings > Audio quality > Download.

3. Open the extended menu on the right of Download and choose the audio quality you want.

To change download quality on mobile:

spotify mobile audio quality spotify connect

1. On Android or iOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. Go to Settings > Audio Quality.

3. Scroll to Download and choose the audio quality you want for your Spotify downloads. You can also toggle Download Using Cellular to enable or disable this feature.

2.2 Download Spotify Music on Desktop & Mobile

Now pick your device to download your favorite Spotify contents.

To download Spotify music on desktop:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. Go to the contents you wish to download to your device. You can head to Your Library and browse for Playlists, Podcasts, Artists, Audiobooks and Albums from the top menu bar. From there you can select things to download.

spotify mobile audio quality spotify connect

3. Enter the profile of the selection, and then find and click on the Download button (arrow down icon). If you don't see it under the profile, click on the More button (3 dots icon) and select Download from the options menu.

spotify desktop access download button

4. Now Spotify will start to download all the selected items. Once the Download button turns green, the download is successful.

spotify desktop playlist downloaded

To download Spotify on mobile:

spotify mobile download offline

1. On Android or iOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. Select the contents to download.

3. When you're viewing the profile of the selection, find the Download button (arrow down icon). To download all the items the selection includes, tap on the Download button.

4. Wait until the download is completed.

2.3 Play Spotify Downloads in Offline Mode on Desktop & Mobile

Now with your favorite contents downloaded to your device, you can find them to play in the Offline Mode. Spotify's Offline Mode makes senses when you lose internet but wish to listen to your downloads only. But you have to go online by turning off the Offline Mode at least once every 30 days to keep your downloads.

To enable Offline Mode on desktop:

spotify desktop offline mode

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. Click the More button (horizonal 3 dots) to open up the app menu > File > Offline Mode. Make sure the Offline Mode is checked and now you're offline.

3. Everything in Spotify is now greyed out expect for the downloads in Your Library. Head to your downloads and play it offline.

To enable Offline Mode on mobile:

spotify mobile offline mode

1. On Android or iOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. Go to Settings > Playback > Offline, and then toggle Offline to enable the Offline Mode.

3. Note that the little line at the bottom of the screen: "Spotify is currently set to offline". You can now head to the downloaded songs and play them in the Offline Mode.

As stated, you should disable the Offline Mode every 30 days so as to keep your Spotify downloads. However, once you lose your Premium subscription the access to the downloaded songs disappears. What's more, even you reactivate your subscription plan, once you reinstall the app, the downloads are gone no matter how. If you download to more than 5 devices, you may also lose your downloads.

From here you'll want to listen to Spotify offline even without the subscription, then we'd like to tell the most popular way for both Premium and Free users to download your favorite Spotify music as local files. Once you got your Spotify music collection from local, you can put them to all your devices and even upload them to Spotify app. All you need is a powerful third-party tool called ViWiard Music Converter. Go ahead.

Part 3. Download Spotify Music Files - Premium & Free Users

All of Spotify users have the ability to stream Spotify content with an Internet connection. But downloading Spotify Music files make senses for particular reasons, especially if you are keen on playing your favorite Spotify Music offline fluently. For starters you have the access to those downloaded songs from local, and even you lose your Subscription, the downloaded songs won't disappear. What's more, while Spotify have the device amount limit, you can transfer the music files to even all your devices to play with any media player.

Best Spotify Music Offline Downloader - ViWizard Music Converter

For that, you have to use a powerful music downloader called ViWizard Music Converter, which ensure the unlimited download service for you by downloading and converting the Spotify Music tracks into actual files as MP3s and more. Added with the DRM-removal function, ViWizard can help crack the DRM from any Spotify Music tracks and export them into 6 supported output formats: MP3, M4A, M4B, AAC, WAV, and FLAC.

The whole conversion will be at 5x super faster speed. After the conversion, the full ID3 tags will be embedded in each downloaded songs with lossless audio quality. All you need to bring is your Music library that you access with your Premium and Free account and you're good to go.

spotify music converter

Key Features of ViWizard Spotify Music Downloader

  • Download Spotify playlists, songs, albums with free account easily
  • Convert Spotify music to MP3, WAV, FLAC and other audio formats
  • Keep Spotify music tracks with the lossless audio quality and ID3 tags
  • Tackle the downloading and conversion of Spotify at 5× faster speed
2,000,000+ Downloads
Download Download

3.1 Download Spotify Music Files without Premium on Desktop

This is a full tutorial to show you how to download Spotify songs for offline listening with ViWizard Spotify Music Converter. After that, you can listen to Spotify music on any device as you wish without limitation.

1Drag Spotify Playlist to Download Offline

Open ViWizard Music Converter on your computer by double-clicking the software icon. Then it will load the Spotify music player on the computer automatically. Once done, navigate to your music library in Spotify and choose the target songs or playlists you want to listen to offline. Then simply drag Spotify music tracks to the downloading window of ViWizard software.

add spotify music

2Define the Output Audio Settings for Spotify

Go to the top menu of ViWizard program and click Preferences. Then you'll enter the interface where you can set the output profile freely. Here you can choose an output format, including MP3, M4A, M4B, AAC, WAV, and FLAC. Besides, you are allowed to customize the output audio channel, bit rate, and sample rate if you want to make the music sounds better.

select output format

3Download Spotify Music for Offline Listening

After everything, click the OK button to go back to the main interface of ViWizard. Then find the Convert button and click it to begin downloading Spotify songs for offline listening. When the conversion is completed, you can locate the well downloaded Spotify music in the history folder. Now you can listen to offline Spotify music on your computer.

convert spotify songs

3.2 Play Spotify Music Files on Desktop:

As stated, those music files should be supported by even the most common device and media player, such as the Windows Media Player, so you can listen to your favorite Spotify contents offline even without Premium now.

If you use the Music app or iTunes app as the default media player, you can now add those Spotify music files to the program. If you switch to Apple Music now, you can even combine your music libraries between Spotify and Apple Music. Just ensure those downloaded songs are in MP3 or WAV.

To upload music files to Apple Music/iTunes on desktop:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the iTunes or Music (Apple Music) app.

2. Choose File from the top menu and select Add File/Folder to Library.

3. Browse for the downloaded Spotify Music files. Select the folder(s) or file(s) to open.

4. The program will add all the compatible files you select. To find those music files in iTunes or Music app, head to the Recently Added tab. You can now create a new playlist based on those files.

But what if you still keep your Premium subscription and wish to play those files offline in the Spotify desktop app? Spotify offers a feature called Local Files, which helps both Premium and Free users to upload your own music collection to the Spotify desktop app. But if you wish to access those files on your mobile device, you'll need your Premium subscription to sync across devices.

To upload music files to Spotify on desktop:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. Click the Profile icon > Settings > Local Files. From here make sure to enable the Local Files by turning on "Show Local Files".

spotify settings show local files off

3. To upload the music files from local, scroll to Show songs from > Add a source.

spotify settings add a source

4. Browse for the folder that contains those music files. Select it and click OK.

5. Now the selected folder is added as source with all the music files.

spotify show songs from source playlist music folder

To find added music files in Spotify on desktop:

1. To find the uploaded music files on the Spotify desktop app, make sure to toggle on Show Local Files and the source to enable the function.

2. Head to Your Library > Local files. And in the playlist you should see all the added songs.

spotify library local files

3. Now repeat some steps in Part 1 to enable the offline mode, you can listen to those music files on demand even without Premium.

3.3 Transfer Spotify Music Files to Mobile:

If you wish to transfer those music files to your mobile devices, you just need to confirm the platform you wish to use from Music (Apple Music), Spotify, to any media players.

To transfer music files directly to mobile:

1. Connect the mobile device to the Windows or Mac computer. To transfer to Android device from Mac, please ensure to have the Android File Transfer app.

2. Copy a selection of files from the Windows Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) window onto the device's storage or Files app.

3. Head to the Files app on the mobile device and check for the music files.

To sync music files from Apple Music/iTunes to mobile (iOS):

1. Connect the iOS device to Windows or Mac computer with the iTunes app.

2. When prompts in iTunes, find and click on the device icon next to the Apple Music Contents menu in iTunes.

itunes apple music menu music

3. Head to the Music tab on the side bar.

4. Make sure to check "Sync Music". now select the music types that includes those Spotify music files. Here we suggest you to "Sync Entire Library". Or you sync those Spotify music files in "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres".

sync entire music library to iphone

5. Click on Apply.

6. Once the transfer is finished, head to the Music app and check for those music files under Recently Added tab.

synced smart playlist iphone

To sync music files from Spotify to mobile (for Premium only):

1. For starters, make sure you create your Spotify playlist with those added files under Local files in your library.

local files spotify playlist

2. Then, make sure both the desktop and mobile devices are connected to the same WiFi network to use the sync feature.

3. On iOS or Android, open the Spotify mobile app. Head to Home > Settings > Local Files > Local audio files, and then toggle Local audio files to enable this sync feature.

4. In the meanwhile, open the Spotify desktop app. Head to the side menu to locate your playlists. Click on the Download button to make it green.

5. On iOS or Android, head to Your Library and find the same playlist you synced from desktop. You can now play or download that playlist.

Part 4. Spotify Offline Mode VS ViWizard Music Downloader - Which Is Better?

In the following part, we have compared the two methods for you to play Spotify songs offline with or without Premium subscription. Read and learn the differences in terms of the output quality, supported players and devices, maximum songs for downloading, and more.

  Download Spotify Offline with ViWizard Download Spotify Offline with Official Method
Listen offline without interent connection
Maximum songs for downloading Unlimited 3,333 songs per playlist per device
Who can use this For both Free users and Premium subscribers Premium subscribers only
Output quality Lossless high-fidelity sound quality Lossless high-fidelity sound quality
Supported players All players Spotify only
Supported devices All devices Sync to 5 different devices only
Ease of use Very simple and easy to operate A little complex
Success rate Stable and very high success rate Some bugs and errors often occur
Price $14.95 for a month $9.99/month ($4.99/month for student; $14.99 for 5 users)

Conclusion

So, you've got to know two ways on how to listen to Spotify offline free with ViWizard Spotify Converter or Offline Mode. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, and you can see clearly from the comparison table above.

For Free users, ViWizard software lets you play Spotify offline without upgrading to Premium membership. If you are paid subscribers, you can also try it to avoid those annoying errors while using Offline Mode in Spotify. Compared with the default Offline Mode, ViWizard would be ever-lasting and more cost-efficient. So, no matter what subscription of Spotify you are using, you are highly suggested to try this method to play Spotify music offline for free.

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