Spotify Swindled $240 Out Of Me Using Spanish

Disclaimer: No swindling, I think the word is just funny (though maybe it’s kinda applicable here?)

I’ve been a proud Spotify Premium paying citizen since March 31, 2021. Prior to that, I was a proud Spotify Freemium using citizen for years, and kinda devised this neat lil trick where you could play any song you wanted at any time (sometimes) at the cost of a little convenience.

I coined the method “micro playlists”: I would make a new empty playlist, add one song to it, and play that playlist. A grand majority of the time for me, it would play that song. Sometimes I would spice it up by adding a second one and treating it like a musical coin flip.

But with such a life of comfortable squalor, why did I end up paying (as of October 20th, 2022) $240? The answer’s simple: The impenetrable complexity of the Spanish language.

I don’t know exactly when or even why it started, but Spotify started serving me, ad nauseam, this one ad for Kroger. That wouldn’t be an issue 99% of the time, I’ve no mind listening to an ad in exchange for some music, but the ad was always in Spanish. Like some kinda torture method.

I speak some French. Not a word of Spanish, though I really wish I could. Super common at my college, and I’m learning a bit of it on the side through Duolingo.

Anyway, that particular ad played so commonly, and the two Spanish voice actor ladies were so peppy and energetic, that I found myself eagerly exchanging some funds for some reprieve. And reprieve I got.

To me, Spotify is actually that one subscription service that falls into the “oh I kinda need this” category with how much I use the thing. The movie streaming stuff, I could easily toss aside. I really don’t watch movies that often, but I do listen to music that often.