Difference between saving a song/album and downloading it

[Charlie0207]

Hi there,

I'm basically just trying to work out what the actual difference is between saving a song or album and downloading it.

By saving I am referring to the 'save' button under the album name/when you click the 3 dots symbol next to a song. By download I mean clicking the download toggle, usually under the 'shuffle play' icon.

I seem to be able to use songs offline in my library through either function so I am struggling to see the difference so far.

Thanks!

[Joe]

Saving music. following a playlist or an artist adds these to your library which is like an index of the stuff you enjoy. Downloading a playlist or album saves the music to your device so you can listen to it offline.

Spotify caches music as you listen to it so that songs you listened to recently may still be playable (from the cache) even if your device is offline which is what you are experiencing.

Some background reading:

Your Music / Your Library

Listen offline

Storage information

[Charlie0207]

Thanks for the reply Joe,

So essentially 'saving' music adds it to my library, but it will only be temporarily available to listen to on my device offline due to the Spotify cache. Downloading music permanently adds it to my device for offline use.

[Joe]

Yup.