Spotify subscriber? Save up to £24 a year by removing audiobooks from your plan

Spotify's new 'Basic' plans cost the same as its existing premium plans did before the streaming service raised prices last month – see our detailed comparison of all of Spotify's plans below.

If you're currently on the Premium Individual plan, you can save even more by paying for a year upfront using a gift card.

For more cost-cutting tips and info on how Spotify works, see our Free and cheap music guide. You can also keep an eye on our Spotify deals page for discounts and offers.

Spotify's new Basic plans offer nearly all of the same features as before

Most of Spotify's existing paid-for 'Premium' plans, with the exception of Student, include 15 hours a month of listening time from its audiobooks catalogue – though on the Duo and Family plans, this is for the main account holder only.

The ONLY difference with the Basic plans – other than price – is that they don't include audiobook access. This means you still get ad-free music listening, the ability to play songs in any order and download them for offline listening, high-quality audio and more.

Spotify couldn't give us a date yet for when its Basic plan will become available to new subscribers.

How to switch to a Basic plan

Follow these steps:

• Log in to your Spotify account online.

• Select 'Profile' and then 'Account'.

• Under 'Subscription', select 'Available plans'.

• Scroll down and find the Basic Individual, Basic Duo or Basic Family option.

• Hit 'Select' and then 'Update subscription'. The change will apply from your next billing date.

Note: On the Duo and Family plans, only the bill-payer (known as the 'plan manager') can make this change – so if you don't see the option to switch, ask the lead account holder to do it.

Other ways to save on Spotify costs

You have a number of other options to consider: 

• On the Individual Premium plan? Save even more by paying for a year upfront with a gift card. When we checked on Tuesday 21 May, we found Amazon and Currys offering digital gift cards that give you 12 months of Individual Premium for £99 – a saving of £32.88 compared to paying for a year of Individual Basic.

  You can redeem the gift card in your Spotify account – the prepaid period will start on your next billing date, at which point your regular monthly payments will stop (they'll restart once the 12 months end).

  If you're having issues with the redemption, try cancelling your plan first – we've seen some reports from MoneySavers that this worked for them. If you're still struggling, contact Spotify directly and it should be able to help.

  Make sure to use the gift card straightaway to minimise the risk of forgetting about it or the issuer going belly up.

  Unfortunately, this tip won't work if you're on the Duo, Family or Student plans, as gift cards can only be redeemed on the Individual Premium plan (though the Student plan is cheaper anyway).

• Downgrade your Spotify package. If you're on the Family subscription for up to six people, yet only two of you use the service, you can save £3 a month by switching to Duo. Similarly, if your Duo account is only used by one person, switch to an Individual account to save up to £5 a month.

  With the Duo and Family plans, listeners can set up their own profile and playlists and you can listen to whatever you want at the same time.

• Consider the free version of Spotify. Spotify is still offering free access to those who don't mind hearing adverts and having less control over their listening queue – though of course this won't suit everyone.