What's Up with Spotify Treating New Premium Account Holders as Freeloaders?
After channel surfing and catching the tail end of HBO's "2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony" on TV last night, I got a hankering for some Guns N' Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was signing up for a 30-day free trial of Spotify's Premium service. I had already been using Spotify, on occasion, but wanted the ability to look up specific songs that I didn't already own and be able to stream them to my mobile devices. Spotify's Premium tier sounded like a slam dunk, if only the streaming music provider didn't drop the ball.
It's now been a little over 12 hours since I upgraded my account, yet I'm still being treated as a freeloader. None of the Premium level features have been unlocked, and though I'm supposedly subscribed to Spotify's top tier service level, the desktop app constantly implores me to "Upgrade" with a hyperlink in the upper right-hand corner, one that redirects me to my Premium account on the Web. On my mobile devices, I'm smugly told that the features I'm trying to use are reserved for Premium users. Short and to the point, my account is stuck, and I'm not the only one.
A quick glance on Spotify's forums reveals a whole lot of users running into the same problem. Out of the 29 non-stickied threads on the first page, 10 of them are in relation to Premium upgraders still being recognized as free users. The longest of those threads is 32 pages.
It's now been a little over 12 hours since I upgraded my account, yet I'm still being treated as a freeloader. None of the Premium level features have been unlocked, and though I'm supposedly subscribed to Spotify's top tier service level, the desktop app constantly implores me to "Upgrade" with a hyperlink in the upper right-hand corner, one that redirects me to my Premium account on the Web. On my mobile devices, I'm smugly told that the features I'm trying to use are reserved for Premium users. Short and to the point, my account is stuck, and I'm not the only one.
A quick glance on Spotify's forums reveals a whole lot of users running into the same problem. Out of the 29 non-stickied threads on the first page, 10 of them are in relation to Premium upgraders still being recognized as free users. The longest of those threads is 32 pages.
Even more troubling is that this doesn't appear to be a new issue. A quick Google search indicates that new Premium users have been getting shafted for at least the past few months -- plenty of time for Spotify to root out the problem and issue a permanent fix.
"There is some fault with servers, so updating to paid account is slow. Apologize for that," hpguru, a Spotify forum member and community founder, posted three weeks ago. "However all of you should receive Premium or Unlimited update soon."
If you're running into the same issue, there are some things you can try before contacting customer service. The first is to make sure you're logging into the same account you upgraded. After that, you can try logging out and back in, and if that doesn't work, the next step is to uninstall and reinstall the desktop app. On mobile devices, like the iPad, reboot after you uninstall.
Still not working? Try crossing your fingers. No, seriously.
"For now you should be patient and wait. All resources at Spotify are now used to fix this problem, so bear with Spotify and keep your fingers crossed!," hpguru added earlier today.
"There is some fault with servers, so updating to paid account is slow. Apologize for that," hpguru, a Spotify forum member and community founder, posted three weeks ago. "However all of you should receive Premium or Unlimited update soon."
If you're running into the same issue, there are some things you can try before contacting customer service. The first is to make sure you're logging into the same account you upgraded. After that, you can try logging out and back in, and if that doesn't work, the next step is to uninstall and reinstall the desktop app. On mobile devices, like the iPad, reboot after you uninstall.
Still not working? Try crossing your fingers. No, seriously.
"For now you should be patient and wait. All resources at Spotify are now used to fix this problem, so bear with Spotify and keep your fingers crossed!," hpguru added earlier today.
UPDATE 9/25/12
Kudos to everyone who kept their fingers crossed, which seems to have worked. The issue has been sorted out on my end, as well those who have updated their posts in the support thread. According to Spotify, their servers were temporarily overloaded, and going forward, this shouldn't be a recurring problem. Snippet from an email update:
"Over the weekend -- between 13:00 and 21:00 CET on Saturday, to be precise -- the payment servers got a little overloaded with requests. This meant that it took payment upgrades slightly longer than usual to come through. But all affected users should now have the service they've paid for up and running. And we're taking all the necessary steps to prevent a similar issue in the future."
