Spotify Premium vs YouTube Premium in India: Which Should You Pay For?
This is one of the most common subscription questions in India, and most comparisons get it wrong by treating the two as direct rivals. They are not. One is a music service. The other is a video service that happens to include music. Picking correctly depends entirely on which app you already open more.
Price in India
| Spotify Premium | YouTube Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| SubsHub price | From Rs 59/month | From Rs 599/month |
| Core benefit | Ad-free music, offline downloads | Ad-free YouTube, background play, YouTube Music |
| Includes video | No | Yes – all of YouTube |
| Best for | Music-first listeners | Heavy YouTube viewers |
That price gap is large, and it explains most of the decision. Spotify Premium is one of the cheapest paid subscriptions available in India. YouTube Premium costs several times more – but it is removing ads from a platform most Indians use for hours a day, not just for music.
Where Spotify wins
- Discovery. Spotify recommendation quality is still the best in the category. Discover Weekly and Release Radar genuinely surface things you would not find.
- Playlists and social. Collaborative playlists, sharing and Wrapped are a real part of why people stay.
- Price. At Rs 59, it is cheap enough that the decision barely needs thinking about if music matters to you.
- Podcasts. A deep catalogue, including a lot of Indian-language shows.
Where YouTube Premium wins
- Ad-free YouTube. This is the actual product. If you watch two hours of YouTube a day, you are reclaiming a meaningful amount of time.
- Background play. Screen off, audio keeps going. For anyone who uses YouTube as a podcast player, this alone justifies it.
- YouTube Music included. A competent music service bundled at no extra cost.
- Catalogue depth for Indian music. Live sets, covers, regional tracks and film music often exist on YouTube and nowhere else.
How to actually decide
Open your phone settings and check screen time for the last week.
- Spotify time is higher – buy Spotify Premium. YouTube Premium is overkill.
- YouTube time is higher – buy YouTube Premium. You get the music service thrown in, so you are not giving up much.
- Both are high – Spotify for music plus YouTube Premium for video is the combination most heavy users land on. It is not cheap, but it is honest about how you actually spend your time.
Do not buy both if one is clearly dominant in your usage. That is the mistake that quietly inflates Indian subscription bills.
What about Apple Music and Gaana?
Worth a look if you are outside the Spotify ecosystem. Apple Music makes sense if you are all-in on iPhone, iPad and Mac – lossless audio and spatial sound are included at no extra cost. Gaana Plus is a cheaper option focused on Bollywood and regional catalogues. All of them sit on our music subscriptions page.
Frequently asked questions
Is YouTube Premium worth it in India?
If you watch YouTube for more than an hour most days, yes – the ad removal and background play change how you use the app. For light viewers it is hard to justify against Spotify at a fraction of the price.
Does YouTube Premium include YouTube Music?
Yes. YouTube Music Premium is bundled, so you get ad-free music and offline downloads as part of the same subscription.
Can Spotify replace YouTube Premium?
Only for music. Spotify does nothing about YouTube ads, and a lot of Indian music – live performances, covers, regional tracks – exists only on YouTube.
Which is cheaper in India?
Spotify Premium, by a wide margin. At SubsHub it starts at Rs 59 per month against Rs 599 for YouTube Premium.
[…] Spotify Premium vs YouTube Premium in India […]
[…] Worth mentioning because it comes free with YouTube Premium. If you already watch a lot of YouTube, you may effectively be getting a music service you have not noticed. We worked through that decision in Spotify vs YouTube Premium. […]