How to access Spotify without 3rd Party VPNs

If you somehow stumbled upon this guide instead of the similar ones ranked higher on google search, well, I think you’re going to get your time’s worth.

If you’re like me, who mostly will be using Spotify on your PC and does not want to go through the hassle of logging every 2 weeks or so, this guide might just do it for you.

I live in India, and there are already some great music streaming apps available such as Saavn, Gaana, Google Play Music, Apple Music, etc. But I have been a long time Spotify user (that is, before they started banning my accounts after 2 weeks) and the music collection, the playlist curation, and just the sheer volume of amazing content that is available on the platform makes me come back to it again and again. And so, after stumbling across the internet in search of a one stop solution for my problem, I decided to do some research and write one of my own.

I want to start off by saying that you do need a VPN to use Spotify in restricted countries, whether it be always on, or during a login (which logs you out after 15–20 days or sometimes permanently bans your account).

I’m not saying that other VPNs are bad or anything, a lot of my friends have been either using with a constant VPN or just re-logging every time they get logged out. However, I didn’t get a seamless experience with any of these methods. All the VPNs I tried (like running in a separate browser tab or even system wide VPN) gave me some or the other issue that ruined the experience.

What you need :

1. an AWS account (free tier will work just fine)
2. ssh client (you can use the Ubuntu Bash for Windows)

Let’s get started.

Setup AWS EC2

1. Login to your AWS Console, Select EC2 and Launch a new Instance

2. Select Amazon Linux AMI

3. Choose t2.micro and Click on ‘Next : Configuration Instance Details’

4. Click ‘Next : Add Storage’ -> ‘Next : Add Tags’ -> ‘Next : Configure Security Group’

5. Click on ‘Add Rule’ and Select ‘Custom UDP Rule’. Then, in the Rule Source Type, select ‘Anywhere’ and set ‘Port Range’ to 8001. Your settings should look like this.

6. Click ‘Review and Launch’ -> ‘Launch’. You will get a menu like this.

7. Select ‘Create a new Key pair’ from the first drop down box. Set ‘Key Pair Name’ : “SpotifyAWS” (you can name it anything you like) and Click ‘Download Key Pair’. You will have a ‘SpotifyAWS.pem’ file downloaded.

8. Click ‘Launch’. When you go back to your EC2 Dashboard, you will have a running instance.

9. Select that instance, and Click ‘Connect’. You will get a popup window with instructions on how to connect to your instance.

Connect to your instance via Bash

1. Open bash, and cd to the directory where you have the .pem file we just downloaded. In my case, I have it on my Desktop.

2. Copy the ‘Example’ command from the AWS window that we have opened.

3. Paste the command in bash, and append to that “ -D 8001” so you have a final command something like this. When you hit enter, type ‘yes’ and you might get an error like this.

4. Simply run the Command “chmod 400 <path/to/your/.pem/file>” which in my case is “chmod 400 SpotifyAWS.pem”

5. Again, run the ‘connect’ command, and you should be able to login to your EC2 instance.

Works similarly on Ubuntu Bash on Windows 10

Change Spotify Settings

1. Open the Spotify App, and Click on Settings.
2. Set the Proxy Host : ‘127.0.0.1’, Port : ‘8001’ and Proxy Type : ‘Socks4’
3. Click ‘Update Proxy’

The last step is simply use any Browser VPN like HolaVPN or Zenmate and make a new Spotify Account (or you can try to login with your older account also) and you’re Done!

Enjoy hassle free Spotify Access!

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you faced any issues during the setup process or if you would like me write more such guides. Also, this article is written for educational purposes only. I do not mean to cause any harm to either Spotify or AWS. Adios :)