How to reduce the hard drive space Spotify uses

[marshall39]

A nice tip i've found here : http://i.nconspicuo.us/2012/01/18/how-to-reduce-the-hard-drive-space-spotify-uses/

Spotify uses too much hard drive storage space. They
cache most of your songs, and use upwards of 1gb of drive space. They do
this only to reduce bandwidth to their servers. If you have an enormous
hard drive, this isn’t as big of a deal (though I still don’t like when
programs use more resources than they need to).

But if you have an ultrafast SSD (such as the 60gb one I have),
then hard drive space is once again at a premium. The following simple
steps will allow you to limit the space Spotify uses, freeing back up
your disk space, while still allowing Spotify to work just fine.

STEP 1: Eliminate the current cache

Open windows explorer and navigate to:

C:\Users\[computer username]\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage

… replacing [computer username] with the name you are logged
into Windows with. Note: you may have to first set explorer to display
hidden files to see all the files.

Delete all the folders / files in this directory.

STEP 2: Manually edit the settings file

Since Spotify’s preferences only allow you to set the minimum storage
space at 1 gb (i.e. 1024 mb), you’ll have to manually edit the settings
file to set it lower. I’d recommend no lower than 20 mb, in order that
at least the current song you’re listening to and a couple more can be
cached. I’m using a value of 50.

Once again in windows explorer, go to:

C:\Users\[computer username]\AppData\Roaming\Spotify

Open the file “settings” in Notepad. Find the phrase “cache_size”,
and change the value following it to your desired size. Example: “cache_size”:1024 ** changed to ** “cache_size”:50

Notes:

These instructions are for windows 7. Another OS should only differ in where these files are located.

As with anytime you are editing files, backup the original files first (e.g. copy and rename to “settings.old”).

So if you use Spotify and want to save your SSD's life with all that read/write stuff ,you know what to do! :)