The process of transition “VKontakte” to licensed music took a long time. Previously, this social network was one of the most convenient services for free listening to music. Now, users are forced to sign a paid subscription: there is audio advertising, in the mobile application you can no longer save music in the device memory, and in the background you can listen only to half an hour a day.
In early December 2016, the application “Music VKontakte” was renamed to Boom. Then the developers first proposed to users of “VKontakte” and “Classmates” to pay for music and began to gradually introduce restrictions on free functions.
Now you can not use the popular social network for comfortable listening to music on an ongoing basis, especially on mobile devices. So you have to make a paid subscription or go to the services of competitors.
How to subscribe
You can subscribe to paid music from your smartphone from a mobile social networking application or through the Boom application. If you want to store music in the device’s memory, you’ll have to install Boom, because the player in the mobile version of VKontakte does not know how. Therefore, it’s easier to subscribe directly through the application.
Most likely, you will be offered to get rid of restrictions and subscribe to the first time you open the player “VKontakte” or the application Boom. If this does not happen, click on the “Download” button next to any track.
Subscription is tied to your account “VKontakte”, so in the browser audio advertising will disappear automatically. Its cost is 149 rubles per month.
How to unsubscribe
Boom can be used for one month free of charge. During this time you will understand whether you are satisfied with the service or not. Then you can cancel the paid subscription. The main thing is not to forget to unsubscribe, because money from the card will be automatically written off every month.
Subscription to Boom works through the application store of the platform on which the subscription was made: Google Play or the App Store.
How to unsubscribe from Google Play
- Open the Play Store.
- Through the side menu go to the section “Account”.
- Select the “Subscriptions” tab.
- Find a card with the word “VKontakte” and in the “Manage” menu to unsubscribe.
How to unsubscribe from the App Store
- In the Settings application on your iOS device, select your name.
- Find the “iTunes Store and App Store” section and click on your Apple ID account at the top of the screen.
- Select “View Apple ID” from the pop-up menu.
- Open the Subscriptions section.
- In the list, find “VKontakte” and click the unsubscribe button.
On the computer, you can unsubscribe from the App Store only through iTunes, and on Google Play – through the browser in your account settings.
Comparison with competitors
There are three popular competitors: Google Play Music, Apple Music and Yandex.Music. Before the advent of Boom, the most profitable offer was from Google, but then prices rose because of the increase in VAT. Apple decided to take the tax on themselves, so their subscription price did not change. Now the cost of the subscription is as follows:
- Boom – 149 rubles.
- “Google Play Music” – 159 rubles + 18% = 187.62 rubles.
- Apple Music – 169 rubles.
- “Yandex.Music” – 169 rubles.
It is worth paying attention to additional tariffs. Apple Music has a tariff for students on more favorable terms – 75 rubles a month. You can also use a family subscription and share the cost of the service for several people (269 rubles in Apple Music and 282.02 rubles in Google Play Music).
In other cases, the difference in price is small, so rely on the habit and convenience. If you store all your music catalog in VKontakte, it’s more reasonable to stay there and switch to a paid subscription – there are still no convenient tools for transferring playlists from VKontakte to Apple Music or Google Play Music.
Also in the music library of the social network there are many songs of small Russian groups that rarely appear in other services. But there are no other compelling reasons for making a paid subscription to Boom.
