Spotify Introducing Offline Backup Feature, Storing Songs Using no Extra Data

Spotify is introducing a new Offline Backup feature to Premium users around the world. Offline Backup enables users to store music offline with not additional use of data or storage.

According to Spotify, nearly half of Premium listeners use Spotify offline while listening to music. Typically, this requires users to manually download tracks, albums, or playlists over wi-fi or worse, using cellular data. With Offline Backup enabled users will have access to a queue of tracks within a playlist when offline.

As Offline Backups roll out to global users, it’s important to update the app on iOS and Android to the most recent version. Afterwards, Spotify will take queued tracks and those recently streamed and create a unique playlist that is easy to access and listen to while offline. The Offline Backup can be added to Your Library for easy access.

As a regular Spotify Premium user, I’ve found myself in need of offline listening whether flying on a trip or driving in remote locations in Ontario where cellular coverage is spotty. It’s only made worse by discovering I hadn’t downloaded any of the recent albums I’ve been listening to.

Offline Backups are then stored on your device as part of your cache on Spotify. Creating an Offline Backup doesn’t require any additional means from the user or additional data apart from what’s used to stream tracks, to begin with.

To have Spotify create an offline backup, you must ensure you’ve listened to more than five songs recently and have offline listening enabled. To do so, head to ‘Settings’ and find the ‘Offline Listening’ toggle under ‘Data Saving and Offline’ or ‘Storage’.

Spotify Premium is available in Canada for $12.69. This week, the company raised prices across the board in Canada.