There are provided a spin coating method and an apparatus for forming a thin film having a uniform thickness on a substrate at a low cost in a process for manufacturing semiconductors, optical disks and the like. A coating solution is dropped onto the surface of a substrate (2) to be coated, mounted on a horizontal turn table (3) through a discharge nozzle (4) and the substrate is turned to form a thin film. After the coating solution is dropped through the nozzle, a stand-by nozzle tip (4a) is soaked and held in a nozzle soaking solution (10) having a composition near or equivalent to that of the coating solution. The crystal deposition of the solute is suppressed. Inter alia, the present invention is useful when a solution containing a solute having high crystallizability is coated.