I spent about 8 hours last night obtaining a Premium Spotify account in the US, and I’ve never been happier.

As you know, Spotify is only available in the UK, Spain, and France. So, the only way to signup for an account it to take a trip overseas… virtually.

Step 1: Signup for a virtual private server

Signup for a Linode account, and buy a 360 VPS. Linode allows you to choose a datacenter when you buy a VPS, and luckily, they have a datacenter in the UK. This will run you $20 a month.

Step 2: Install Ubuntu and Boot Your VPS

Install Ubuntu Server on your new british hackbox. You can SSH in to test it out. Have fun. Make sure openssh-server is installed.

Step 3: Edit Hosts File

Append the following lines to your /etc/hosts file:

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127.0.0.1 		spotify.com 
127.0.0.1 		www.spotify.com
[your vps ip]		hackbox

Step 4: Open a Reverse SSH Forwarding Tunnel

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sudo ssh -C root@hackbox -L 443:spotify.com:443
sudo ssh -C root@hackbox -L 80:spotify.com:480

Congratulations. You’re now a Brit.

Step 5: Create an Account

While creating an account, you are prompted for you postal code. I did some google-fu and used SO23 8TH as my postal code for Winchester, Hampshire UK.

Download the client.

Step 6: Enjoy :)

You now have unlimited access to a library of ~8,000,000 tracks, as if they were on your own computer.

Once every two weeks, you’ll have to reopen your SSH tunnels and login at spotify.com to proveyou’ll be good to go.

This restriction is lifted if you signup for a Premium account. I highly recommend this, as it allows you to listen to your music at 320 kbps. I’d tell you how, but I’d rather enjoy the fruits of my hard labor.