The lossless audio is a step above the quality you’d get from other services, plus there’s the option of hearing songs in Dolby Atmos spatial 3-D sound, which requires some specific hardware like the AirPods Pro and Max. The gist: The selling points of Apple include high-quality audio options, a library of 90 million songs and plenty of exclusives from some of the top artists in the game. In the latter case, a user can start with their individual subscription then upgrade to the larger plan that allows up to six users to access the service and have their own individual libraries, so you could always give them the equivalent gift of cash to cover the bill for however long you choose. The only catch is that while cards can come in a number of monetary denominations, they can only be used to pay for Spotify’s $9.99 premium subscription, not the $4.99 student or $15.99 family plans. For the digital version, you’ll just need the email address of the recipient, and all of the gifts can be redeemed online at /redeem. How to gift it: You can buy Spotify gift cards online and in stores from multiple retailers including Amazon, Target, Best Buy, CVS, and PayPal. Whether that last example is a selling point or a red flag is up to you, but simply put, there’s plenty of content and social experiences you’ll only get here. Then there’s the exclusive content - in addition to Spotify Singles and other live performances by a number of cutting-edge artists, the service has a number of exclusive podcasts, most famously Joe Rogan’s.

But if even if the social aspects aren’t a selling point, Spotify’s curated playlists, from both algorithms and actual humans, are great for finding new songs and artists or getting mixes of your old favorites. Spotify encourages this, most notably with its year-end Wrapped and discovery playlists that allow users to compare and share their listening habits. You should definitely factor in the social aspects of this streamer because chances are your giftee’s friends and family will already be using it and have songs and playlists that can only be opened in this app. The gist: Spotify’s popularity is a big selling point, and not just in the “It’s what all the cool kids are using” way.

Spotify gift subscription