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How to give Spotify as a gift for the holidays

Put some gift wrap and ribbon on more than 50 million songs.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.

Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms

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Matt Elliott

Dec. 16, 2019 1:02 p.m. PT

2 min read

spotify-decade-review-2931 — Angela Lang/CNET

For that person on your list who's impossible to buy for, why not give them more than 50 million songs for the holidays? (Plus, more podcasts than they'll know what to do with.) With a gift card for Spotify Premium, you can give the gift of ad-free music streaming this year.

It was a close race between Spotify and Apple Music, but Spotify is CNET's pick as the best music streaming service for its fun, easy-to-use interface, extensive catalog and the best device compatibility. Spotify doesn't sell gift cards itself, but you can find both electronic gift cards and physical gift cards online and in stores.

Read more: Best last-minute gifts for 2019

Electronic gift cards for Spotify Premium

The quickest and easiest path for gifting Spotify is an electronic gift card that you can email to your recipient. You can find Spotify eGift cards online at Target, NewEgg, Kroger and PayPal usually in amounts of $10, $30, $60.

See at Target

If you're wondering how far a gift card will go, you should know that Spotify Premium costs $9.99 a month. You can't use a Spotify gift card toward a discounted $4.99-a-month Spotify Student plan, however, or the $14.99-a-month Spotify Family plan.

More fine print to keep in mind:

Gift cards are valid for 12 months from date of purchase.
Spotify gift cards can only be redeemed on Spotify accounts registered in the same country where they were purchased.

Watch this: Spotify buys Gimlet and Anchor on its march to rule podcasts

02:28

Physical gift cards for Spotify Premium

If you want a gift card to toss in a holiday card, you can purchase physical Spotify gift cards online from Amazon and Best Buy. (Neither, however, sells electronic gift cards for Spotify.) Amazon has Spotify gift cards for $30 or $60, and there's also a separate $99 Spotify gift card. Best Buy sells Spotify gift cards for $10, $30, $60 or $99.

You'll also find Spotify gift cards in brick-and-mortar stores including Walmart, Target , Staples, CVS, 7 Eleven, Kroger and Simon Malls.