Best VPNs for Spotify

Streaming Spotify from abroad

If you are living (or traveling) outside the 78 countries where Spotify offers its service and try to reach Spotify’s website, you will get a message saying: “Spotify is currently not available in your country”. To bypass this geo-restriction and unblock Spotify, you will need to change your IP location through a VPN service.

However, there are other reasons besides country blockage to use a VPN while accessing Spotify, one of them being the pricing difference. Spotify prices its service depending on the country’s GDP, meaning that countries like the U.S. and UK will have higher monthly payments compared to countries like the Philippines or Brazil. One example is the difference between the U.S. and India where, at certain points in time, Americans have paid up to six times what Indians paid for the premium service.

Moreover, even though Spotify is available in a certain country, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of its content will be available. Whether that’s because Spotify was not able to get the license or because the country is censoring specific tracks, there are times where you will find certain songs grey and unplayable. In other words, that song is not available in the country you are accessing Spotify from and you will need to use a VPN to change your IP to bypass that blockage.

Unblocking Spotify

Even if you are in a country which gives full access to Spotify, you may find yourself in places where both the app and the website are blocked. Schools and companies usually block specific sites, and Spotify may be one of them.

In order to do so, network administrators can set an array of rules on their firewall which denies data coming in and out of the network from the blocked websites, or they choose a DNS (Domain Name System) server, which will handle all site blocking and filtering tasks.

By using a VPN, all data will be military-grade encrypted, making it impossible for anyone else to read/decrypt/block your web traffic which will unblock any website since the network administrator needs to have access to your data to block websites. Moreover, most VPNs also use private, encrypted DNS servers which will hide what websites you’re unblocking from your network administrator.

Using a VPN with Spotify

Spotify is available on all devices. From your mobile phone to your Smart TV, listening to your favorite music is easier than ever. Therefore, when choosing a VPN service to use with your Spotify account, it’s a good idea to see which devices the VPN supports.

Nowadays, you can find a VPN solution for all your needs. Almost every VPN offers a computer or mobile app, which is easy to install and simple to use, and you usually just need to install the app and press the ‘connect’ button. However, if you want to use other devices for Spotify, it may get a bit trickier. Fortunately, VPN providers that support other devices which imply more configuration from your part, always have set-by-step guides on their websites.

Nevertheless, if you don’t want to configure every single device you own, you can always install the VPN directly on your router. This method will make all your devices connected to the router also connected to the VPN server and, therefore, safe.

By having a VPN running in the background while you listen to music on Spotify, not only will it let you bypass block constraints as explained before, but it will also keep the streaming company from tracking you to offer targeted ads. Since your connection will be fully encrypted and your location disguised with the VPN server’s IP, there is no way that Spotify can see what you are doing while online.

Recommended VPN services

When looking for a VPN service to use with Spotify, there are three main aspects to take into account. The VPN provider needs to have a fast and reliable connection, a vast VPN network with servers located where Spotify is available, and it needs to support a substantial array of devices.

ExpressVPN