In an effort to grow its paid subscribers base, Spotify this morning announced a partnership with Capital One that will offer Spotify customers half off the price of their Spotify subscription if they pay with a Capital One Quicksilver or QuicksilverOne cards. The year-long partnership will conclude on April 30, 2018 and will be applicable to all the Premium tier memberships Spotify offers.
This includes the standard Premium membership which is $9.99 per month, as well as the student and family plans. Given that a full year of Spotify Premium typically costs $120, the deal means that cardholders would save $60 a year by using their Capital One card, or as much as $90 if paying for a Spotify Premium Family membership.
Customers who sign up through this Capital One promotion are also offered a free, three-month trial before they’re automatically enrolled into the music subscription service. Spotify will then continue to bill customers at the usual rate, but Capital One will apply the 50 percent discount in the form of a statement credit.
This credit may take a billing cycle or two before it shows up, but it will automatically appear – customers don’t have to request it, fill out a form, or take any other steps. They only have to register for Spotify using their Capital One card.
Though Spotify isn’t touting this aspect to the deal (given its aims), Capital One’s website says the offer is available to existing paid subscribers, too. All they have to do is switch their payment method over to Capital One.
Spotify didn’t disclose whether it or Capital One is underwriting the discount.
The move comes at a time when rival streaming services, including Pandora, Apple Music, Amazon, and others are competing for paying customers who upgrade in order to access expanded catalogs of on-demand music and features like curated playlists, offline listening and an ad-free experience.
This is the first relationship Spotify has made with a financial institution, and will be something of a test to see if future deals like this make sense as a means of impacting the growth of its paid user base. Today, Spotify has 100 million users, 50 million of which subscribe to its service. Apple Music, meanwhile, announced 20 million paid subscribers in December, but will likely update that number at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June.
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