If you’re tired of Spotify, or are switching to an alternative to Spotify like Apple Music or Google Play Music, then you’ll need to cancel your subscription to Spotify if you pay for it. If you don’t, and you just want to delete your account, you’ll need to contact Spotify customer service directly. But before you make any decisions, there are a few things you need to know about deleting your Spotify account – primarily, that there is very little incentive to do so because of their “Forever Free” service.
IMPORTANT: Don’t end up paying more for Spotify
If you pay for Spotify Premium, you need to cancel your subscription before closing your account. Deleting your account will not cancel your billing, and you will continue to be charged until you cancel the actual account. Jump down here to learn how.
If you want to get the low down on everything you need to know about deleting Spotify, or cancelling your Spotify subscription, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll break down:
- What you need to know before deleting your Spotify account
- How to cancel your Spotify subscription
- How to delete your Spotify account (in a web browser)
Let’s get started with the most important things you should know before you delete or cancel Spotify.
What you need to know before deleting your Spotify account
There are many downsides to actually deleting Spotify, and very few upsides – so think carefully before you make this decision. All of the following will apply if you delete your Spotify account:
- You can’t ever use your username on Spotify again – even if you sign up in the future, that username won’t be available anymore.
- You will lose your playlists – there is no way to recover this saved information.
- You will lose followers – if you have any followers, they will be gone forever.
- You will lose everything in library – any saved songs won’t be kept for you.
- They have a free forever plan – a plan you never have to pay for, but it saves all of the above information, so there’s little upside to actually deleting your account, even if you cancel your subscription.
- You have to wait to get the student discount again – if you signed up using the student discount, you need to wait 12 months to apply for it again (you can sign up again, but you won’t get the discount).
- It is impossible to delete Spotify on mobile – you must do it in a web browser at Spotify.com.
- You must cancel first before deleting – if you have a paid subscription to Spotify, you must cancel that first and then delete your account.
- The only way to permanently delete the account is to contact customer service – there is no button you can tap or click to actually close your account – all you can do yourself is delete the app on your mobile device – but it won’t close your account.
Remember that once you actually delete Spotify, you can’t get any of your Spotify features and saved settings back – even if you sign up for it again immediately, 5 minutes later. You can however just end your subscription and stop paying rather than closing your account, which we recommend you do. However, we’ll show you how to do both below.
How to cancel your Spotify subscription
There are two ways to cancel your subscription to Spotify. This is the main, and easier, way:
- Go to Spotify.com and log into your account.
- In the top-right, click Profile, and then click Account in the drop-down.
- Click Manage Plan.
- Click Change or Cancel.
- Click Cancel Premium.
- Click Yes, Cancel.
- Confirm the date your account will revert to the free version of Spotify.
If you want another method, or have trouble doing the above, you can also fill out this form, and send it attached to an email to breakup@spotify.com. Someone from Spotify customer service will contact you to confirm you want to cancel your subscription.
Once this is done, if you still want to actually delete your account, this is a different process. Here’s how to get it done.
How to delete your Spotify account (in a web browser)
- Go to this Spotify close account link and sign in.
- Select Account from the available options.
- Click I Want to Close My Account Permanently.
- Review the information about what you’ll lose, and click the black Close Account
- Confirm that the account is closed on the next screen.
And that’s how you cancel and delete Spotify. If you’re looking for something similar to Spotify, we’d recommend you check out Pandora.com. We even have a free course with step-by-step tutorials on how to use Pandora here.
