The Expenses Involved In Using The Native Spotify App In Your Cadillac
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In March, Spotify and Cadillac happily announced the brand new Spotify app that runs natively on the latest Cadillac infotainment system, otherwise known as CUE 3.0. Now that the excitement surround the announcement has settled, a hard look at reality – as outlined by our sister site, Cadillac Society – shows that the app comes with a few costs that might serve as a deterrent for some users.
In all, using the native Spotify app (the one that runs directly on CUE) requires two paid plans:
- A Spotify Premium plan ($9.99 per month), and
- An active 4G LTE data subscription, offered as one of the following three plans:
- $20 a month for the unlimited plan
- $10 for 1GB
- $10 a month as a device for AT&T customers
Note that al prices are current at the time of this writing, and may have changed – depending on when you’re reading this.
So the bottom line here is this: besides the price of a compatible Cadillac, it would cost someone a minimum of $19.99 per month to use the native Spotify app in their Caddy.
The GM Authority Take
Paying $19.99 per month (alongside the price of a new Caddy equipped with gen-three CUE) to use the Spotify natively in the car might be somewhat steep for some owners, though it might not be a significant expense for an owner of a new Cadillac.
Even so, it’s important to note that subscribing to both, Spotify Premium and the in-vehicle Cadillac data plan, carries a few secondary benefits. For instance, subscribing to the premium version of Spotify delivers an ad-free listening experience and removes the limitations of the free version on any device (on any device, in and our of the car). What’s more, getting a data plan also gives one the ability to use the Wi-Fi functionality as well as the other connected services (like traffic and weather) of the CUE infotainment system, such as traffic and weather.
However, it’s vital to note that those with a brand new Cadillac who are using the trial period can use the Spotify app for free during the time period/data limitations of the trial. Using the Spotify app and the in-vehicle Wi-Fi counts towards the plan’s data limit (in the case of the per-gigabyte plans) as well as towards the data speed cap (in the case of unlimited plans)
With all that in mind, we’re going to predict that the two subscription stipulations and associated cost will result in most customers continuing to use the Spotify app on their smartphone and sending the sound to their vehicle via Bluetooth or a cable… but we could be wrong.
What say you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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The bigger question, do you need to enter a credit card into Spotify/CUE to receive the trial? Right or wrong, that is a proven way to gain revenue as many people sign up for trials with the intention of canceling before the trial ends and never paying for the service… Despite receiving emails/notifications (to be fair some companies do not notify you and sometimes emails go into junk/spam folders) send that their free trial only used for the first month will end and they will be charged, they ignore/forget about it for months…
This article will show who is a cheap arse and who is not!
And by cheap I mean me because I would never pay for this junk. That is money that could be spent making my car better. I want my Chevys as reliable as my neighbors Camry.
They are next problem you have is?
I don’t listen to Spotify (but similar apps), but isn’t it available in Apple CarPlay/Android Auto? I think that technophile cheapskates (like myself) would just run it there, ditching this 3.0 version of the “Cadillac User Experience”. It’s Cadillac for Christ’s sake; I guess they should constantly be offering a ‘premium’ experience.
Yeah it’s a pretty redundant feature. I’d imaging the percentage of current Spotify premium subscribers who own a smartphone with data is about 100.
Maybe Cadillac is trying to appeal to their customers who may have flip phones with extra large numbers or maybe they think having the Spotify icon on the screen makes it hip. Either way this seems like a huge miss.
Spotify is free.
Spotify Premium is a paid service.
Not sure why they don’t give you the option – Spotify has commercials, I think (?) Premium is commercial-free.
And once you exceed your gig limit, ATT (at least on my phone) automatically adds another gig for $15 per.
So if you’re out of your WiFi carrier’s range (it happens), you burn through 4G LTE data pretty quickly.
FYI as I’d imagine on here very few on here will have a paid Premium Spotify which is a point I’ll address in #1…
1. Like most big automakers, Satellite radio has been a part of GM offerings for nearly two decades…There have been various Sat Radio lifetime subscription promotions including when you tried to cancel in the early year…If you only buy GMs or Caddys you may have been interested in this…
2. XM/Sirus offers a variety of plans including a single vehicles radio and even a streaming add on…
3. Paid streaming subscriptions like Spotify premium can offer exclusive content or offer content before other steaming services…When you think you’re paying premium for a premium streaming service you would hope to get exclusive content you want to listen to…This past winter Spotify added Miley Cyrus XMas Carols…
4. Exclusive content today does not mean exclusive content forever…
5. Perhaps Brian will appreciation me mentioning them, for myself, being called cheap is one the nicer terms of endearment that have been used on me here…For those too cheap to pay the monthly fees, cheap alternatives exist…10mins of your time every 5, 6 or 12 months is all it takes to call XM/Sirius and tell them “Unless I can renew at $5/mo I’d like to cancel” you’re going to put on hold and transferred (on average) three separate times, each time their “best we can do” offer will sound a little better but if you just mindlessly parrot “unless I can renew at $5/mo I’d like to cancel” you should give their current $5 (plus fees and taxes) 5, 6 or 12 month promo offer…
Spotify has been around for about a decade. And they have never made a profit. And yet their stock continues to sell. That kind of makes them the tesla of streaming.
Not even Spotify can save Cadillac’s CUE system.
I’ll have to double check but I swear spotify icon pops up on my wife’s Sync 3 when her phone connects…
Being the dinosaur of tech that I am,why can’t spotify work on the antennae like sirius?
I need Spotify, instead of satellite radio because I like Italian pop, Latino pop and traditional, and traditional African music, etc. I have a Cadillac and I don’t understand why I have to pay more for it to work in my Cadillac. In my Kia and other rental cars, there is no problem using Spotify. I totally hate my Cadillac.