What was it like listening to music before the days of Spotify? This is a question I can hardly wrap my mind around anymore, since the music streaming service has now become such an important and integrated part of life for so many people. Surely life had to exist before the days of this wonderful creation, but it seems almost impossible to imagine.

I remember when I first signed up for Spotify and I was completely blown away by the amount of music available to listen to for free. Sure, there were a few advertisements that I had to listen to from time to time, but that did not really matter to me at first because of all the music available. I had gotten used to the advertisements, and I had gotten used to not having access to any song at any time when I used the app on my phone, another feature of Spotify's free service. I was happy enough and these slight limitations did not bother me. That’s when it all changed.

I was relaxing at home, listening to some song on Spotify when an advertisement came on. But it was not an advertisement for something stupid this time. Rather, it was an ad for Spotify itself, and more importantly, it was an ad that offered three months of Spotify Premium for only $0.99 per month. I considered this for a moment and thought “Sure, I’ll go ahead and give it a try.”

So I did. I paid the 99 cents, signed up for the service, and began my journey of ad-free listening. Of course, I already knew about Spotify Premium, but I did not know if it was worth the normal price of 10 dollars a month, and this was also before I knew about the student discount that offers it for 5 dollars a month. I was nothing but a naive young lad pulled into the premium streaming world for such a low price that I could hardly say no. From that day forward, nothing would ever be the same again.

I quickly began to see the benefits of this revolutionary premium service and it became clear to me that I could hardly go back now. Advertisements became a thing of the past for me and I could listen to as much music as I wanted for as long as I wanted. I even had full access to any song when I used Spotify on my phone, another revolutionary concept that I could no longer imagine myself living without.

Life was good. I had access to all the music I wanted on any device I wanted, and it was ad-free. I couldn’t imagine anything better. Spotify had their claws in me and they showed no signs of letting go. So naturally, once my 99 cent period came to an end, I continued with Spotify Premium and began to pay the normal amount each month. I had no choice. I couldn’t go back to advertisements, I just couldn’t do it.

Life continued on from there, with ads becoming a thing of the past as I eventually began to take my premium Spotify services for granted, refusing to believe how much I needed it and eventually believing that I could live without it. So, a few months ago I decided to save money and cancel my premium membership, resorting back to the savage ways of advertisements and limited mobile listening.

I must say, it has not been easy. Life seems a little bit more mundane now, like I have slightly less of a reason to get up in the morning knowing what my options are when it comes to listening to music. Each ad I listen to eats at my soul a tiny bit more as I continue to wander through this lonely existence and remember what it was like to be among the top tier of Spotify listeners.

Whenever I try to listen to a specific song when using Spotify on my phone, it will not let me, forcing me to use my allotted amount of song skips until I find something half decent to listen to, a true and utter travesty.

As I sit here now and write down my Spotify journey, a song I was listening to just ended and I am now listening to another god-awful advertisement, hoping and praying that it will soon end and allow me to listen to my music once again.

Life has not been the same since I canceled Spotify Premium, so the question now arises as to what I will do regarding the future. Should I continue to mope and complain about my Spotify glory days, or should I simply sign back up for the premium service since it is probably worth the money?

Only time will tell.