Skip to main content

Chill with Spotify for free on Delta Airlines this holiday season

There’s some good news for Spotify listeners who are planning to take a trip this holiday season on Delta Airlines — you’ll be able to stream as much music as you like without paying the airline’s customary fees for Wi-Fi data. Delta won’t be playing Santa for long, as the free data period only lasts from December 8, 2021, to January 19, 2022.

To take advantage of the free data, all you need to do is connect your phone or tablet to the in-flight Wi-Fi system and then fire up your Spotify app. There’s only one caveat: Your aircraft needs to be equipped with Viasat for its data connectivity, and not every Delta flight has this gear.

Related:

Please enable Javascript to view this content

If your flight is not one that uses Viasat, all is not lost. Delta and Spotify also make Spotify content available for free via the Delta Studio seatback entertainment systems on Delta aircraft. You’ll find a collection of the company’s favorite playlists and more than 40 different podcasts.

If your Delta flight doesn’t have Delta Studio entertainment systems either, or maybe you’re booked on another airline, there’s still the universal option: Here’s how to download songs to your phone or computer from Spotify so you’ll have access to them even with no data connection whatsoever. You’ll need a Spotify Premium account for this, but if your device has enough room, you’ll be able to carry a ton of music with you — likely more than enough to get you through your holiday travel plans, whether they include family or just a much-needed return to seeing the world outside your own home.

Spotify and Delta isn’t the only tunes-in-the-sky partnership. In 2019, American Airlines and Apple announced that passengers on American’s Viasat flights could stream Apple Music for free on select flights.

Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…
Spotify’s AI Playlist creation tool lands in the U.S., Canada, and beyond
Screen images of the Spotify AI Playlist feature.

Spotify today announced that its new AI Playlist feature that allows you to use text prompts to generate personalized playlists is now available to Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.

First made available in beta form in April to Spotify Premium users in Australia and the U.K., the AI Playlist feature uses generative AI and allows users to either choose from a range of premade suggested playlist ideas or to use a text prompt to type in whatever they want.

Read more
Tidal vs. Spotify: Which music streaming service has the features you need?
Tidal home page on iPhone.

If you in the midst of choosing which music streaming service is best for you, when comparing Spotify and Tidal, price is an important, but not the only, factor to consider. Spotify stands out with its flexible subscription options, offering individual, family, and student plans, each with its own unique benefits. In contrast, Tidal offers various subscription plans, too, but Tidal's calling card is that it includes premium and hi-fi options, with the hi-fi plan providing access to lossless, hi-res audio. Spotify does not offer this ... yet.

Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis and AAC audio formats for streaming, delivering audio at varying bitrates. At the same time, Tidal's hi-fi subscription offers lossless, CD-quality audio and hi-res audio files in FLAC and HiRes FLAC formats.

Read more
Spotify’s hi-fi tease is tearing my family apart
The Spotify app on an iPhone.

In the wake of yet another tease from Spotify on the potential coming of its long, long-awaited hi-fi tier, the flames of streaming music wars have once again been stoked in my household: I’m ready to dump Spotify for better audio quality, while my family is prepared to die on its lo-fi hill.

My wife, 13-year-old daughter, and I have been a Spotify Family family for years. But while we all agree that the Swedish streaming service’s UI, music discovery, and plentiful extra features are miles above the competition, I, on the other hand, have become accustomed to the sweet sounds of lossless and hi-res audio, and have had to sit at the sidelines gnashing my teeth watching every other music service add them to their platforms. And I’ve had it.

Read more