E-gift card - buying for a friend in Germany

[inez92]

Hello all,

I'd like to buy a 3-month premium subscription for a friend, but the website's restrictions are making it extremely difficult! I'll do my best to explain things simply:

We both live in Germany right now (I'm here short-term). My only possible methods of payment are UK Paypal, and a UK Visa card.

If I have my country set to 'Deutschland' I can't pay, because "the country selected needs to be the same as where your payment card or PayPal account is registered."

So I switch the country to ''UK'. Here I notice that the UK and German versions of the e-gift card page talk about different conditions for code redemption:

UK: Spotify Premium codes can only be redeemed by recipients in the same country as the country you bought the e-card in. 

Germany: Spotify Premium Codes können nur von Empfängern in Andorra, Belgien, Deutschland, Dänemark, Estonia, Finnland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Hong Kong, Iceland, Irland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, Monaco, Niederlande, Norwegen, Poland, Portugal, Schweden, Schweiz, Singapore, Spanien, Österreich eingelöst werden (redeemable all over the world)

As I said, my friend lives in Germany - apparently he wouldn't be able to redeem the code. Why the difference in the conditions?

I want to give Spotify my money, but I really don't know how.

Please help! Thanks a lot,

Inez

[Joe]

These restrictions are due to licensing agreements. A song licensed for the UK can only be played in the UK etc so Spotify have these clunky requirements to ensure they don't fall foul of the right holders. If you did buy a UK e-card, I don't think it would be accepted for a German Spotify account.

I can't think of a way to solve your problem but maybe one of the staff will pick this up and have an answer. You could submit an online contact form and someone at Spotify can look into it for you. If you get an automated reply, make sure to reply to it directly (even if it's from a no reply) and it will be sent to the Spotify staff.

[inez92]

Thanks very much for your reply Joe. I have one more related question.

When I moved to Germany from England, it seemed I was able to continue my Unlimited subscription without noticing any difference to the music catalogue. Does this mean that, despite being in Germany, I am still able to view the UK song selection because that's where I originally subscribed?

I only want to make sure that my friend would get as wide a selection of music as I am getting. As long as we both get the same service, I'm ready to shell out.

Regards

[Adam]

There'll be a slight difference in catalogue content because, yep, you'll be seeing the UK catalogue and your friend will (presumably) be seeing the German catalogue. The vast majority of albums/tracks will be available to both of you though.