Prices are rising everywhere — at the grocery store, at the doctor and at the gas station. The streaming services where we keep our favorite movies, shows, songs and podcasts are no exception. Netflix faced its last price hike in 2022 and is expected to raise prices again in 2025, while Spotify just increased the price of its Premium for United States customers in July.
These profit-boosting measures affect binge watchers and playlist shufflers everywhere, including students at the University of Maryland. Thankfully, many of your favorite movies, shows and albums can be found for free or discounted prices with just a few clicks. Here’s how:
TV and movie streaming
Many streaming services are free for anyone, regardless of student status. The surprisingly diverse content offered on Tubi makes it the best of the bunch, featuring fan favorite movies such as Knives Out, Coraline and Licorice Pizza, and binge worthy shows including Hell’s Kitchen, Gossip Girl, Columbo and Death Note with no subscription required.
Tubi even has a live TV option, with sports, news and many classic shows. I found Tubi to be particularly helpful in October during my spooky movie marathon — many hard–to–find cult classics are streaming there for no cost.
Another free service is Pluto TV,which also has a live TV option. Plex and Xumo are also worth checking out. Through the university’s library system, you also have free access to Kanopy, which offers a vast assortment of A24 films, documentaries and indie classics.
Students can use their enrollment status at this university to score student discounts on many big names streaming services. With a student discount, Hulu with ads is $1.99 a month, Amazon Prime, which includes other benefits such free two-day shipping on Amazon orders, is $7.49 a month after a six–month free trial and Paramount+ Essential is $5.99 a month.
Xfinity on Campus is the university’s free cable service offered to on-campus students, and allows students to access Max for free.
Music streaming
The free option for music listening is YouTube Music, can only be used with an internet or cellular connection. Using your student status at this university gives access to the student plan of YouTube Music Premium, which allows offline streaming and unlimited playing for $5.49 a month after a one–month free trial.
The major music services, Apple Music and Spotify Premium, also offer student plans, both at $5.99 a month after a one-month free trial. The Spotify Premium student plan includes Hulu with ads, while Apple Music includes access to Apple TV+.
The Amazon Prime student plan, priced at $7.49 a month after a six month free trial, features Amazon Music for no additional cost. Songs added to the All-Access Playlist can be played with just a click, online or offline and no skip limits. Amazon Music Unlimited, an upgrade from Amazon Music that allows ad-free listening, is $9.99 a month for Prime members after a one–month free trial.
E-book access
Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library on the internet and provides access to 70,000 free e-books, mostly classics like Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice and Moby Dick that are in the public domain.
If you are a Kindle user and have a library card, you can use the service Libby to borrow e-books or audiobooks and read them on your device or in the Libby app.
