I’ve been a loyal Spotify Premium member ever since they launched in the US back in June 2011. I love the fact that I have millions of songs at my fingertips, can set up offline sync on my mobile devices and have the same playlists everywhere. Plus, their product has just gotten better and better over time – even if I can no longer get my Taylor Swift fix from them.
Having Spotify has also meant that all my music has been 99.9% legal. I’ll admit… I was an early user of Napster, Limewire and all the others. Now? No more torrents or illegal downloads at all. In fact, I rarely even open iTunes anymore. (The last time I used it was just to check out that horrible U2 album Apple gave everyone.)
My loyalty has been costing me U$S 9.99/month, which, after a quick calculation, means I’ve paid Spotify about $460! While I think it’s worth it, that’s a number that certainly adds up.
So, clever me has now figured out that if I switch my billing from the US to Argentina my monthly fee goes from U$S 9.99/month to ARS $49/month (with the 35% AFIP fee). That’s just about U$S 3.90 at the blue rate and only U$S 5.46 at the official rate. This translates into more than U$S 70 in savings per year!
Of course, I could have done this back in September 2013 when Spotify first launched in Argentina, but I kept forgetting to turn off my annual billing. (Better late than never right?) I was also worried that I would lose my extensive playlists and have to start over, but that is not the case. Switching to the Argentine version of Spotify is incredibly simple.
First, you’ll need an Argentine credit card to make this work. Next, login to your Spotify Premium account. Go to Subscription and payments overview. Click UPDATE DETAILS, and then click on select another payment method. Once you do that, click Change Country and pick Argentina. Now, enter your Argentine credit card information.
Once you do that, your next bill will be charged to your Argentine credit card at the substantially lower rate.
To get even more savings, you might be able to get Spotify through your Internet provider. Arnet offers Spotify for $39,90 which is cheaper than paying the 35% AFIP charge. Yet, like many things in Argentina, their simple signup process does not seem to work. I tried to add it twice online and it never appeared in my account. I haven’t had the energy yet to call them, so I’ll probably just stick with paying on my credit card. Another day in Argentina…