Spotify to impose limits on free music streaming service
Spotify is making some changes to its free streaming music service, due to take effect on May 1st. Here's what will happen:
• New Spotify users will be able to enjoy the free service as it currently exists (with ads) for the first six months after they sign up.
• From May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1st 2010 will be able to play each track for free up to five times.
* Users who signed up after November 2010 will see these changes applied six months after the time they set up their Spotify account.
• Additionally, total listening time for free users will be limited to ten hours a month after the first six months. Spotify says this is equivalent to around 200 tracks or 20 albums.
"The changes we're having to make will mainly affect heavier Spotify Free and Open users," the company says. It claims most 'free' users listen to an average of 50 tracks per month so won't notice any difference.
Spotify's Unlimited and Premium services remain unaffected, and during May there'll be a 30-day free trial for Spotify Premium in a bid to tempt people to pay for the service.
Follow whathifi.com on Twitter
Comments
The 5 listens per track/lifetime is a huge limitation, especially if you enjoy listening to b-sides. If this were 4 listens per track/month, then this would be fine.
I would buy individual tracks (such as b-sides) if I could buy them in true 1:1 CD quality (i.e. FLAC), but I can't, so I don't. I can't abide MP3s, regardless of bit rate.
I don't think Spotify have got their features/pricing quite right, just yet.
I'd happily pay £5/month for Spotify Unlimited, if it had the same audio quality as Spotify Premium. It doesn't, so I'll stick to using Spotify Free for music discovery and buying a handful of CDs per month.
It all depends how you use it. If you're simply trying out tracks before you buy, it might not be worth it (but then the free version is still perfectly good enough), but I personally have premium and have reduced my CD buying from at least 3 or 4 a month, to maybe 1 every 2 months. I have it on my Android phone, I have it on the PC and best of all, I have it on my squeezebox. I simply add albums as I find them as playlists and they're as good as being mine. £10 a month + perhaps £10 every other month (for the odd CD) compares very well to £30 or more every month for a CD (not to mention the hassle of ripping everything. The quality is excellent too. In the end there is no such thing as a free lunch, and if you want unlimited access then you're gonna have to pay.
For anyone who loves exploring music, Spotify is great. £10 pm is less than 2 CDs or a couple of MP3 albums, and if you don't like an artist or album, you haven't wasted your money. Quality is great and even more convenient streamed around the house using Sonos.
Cue the obtaining of music from other sources again.
Shame too, I enjoyed spotify, but spotify's hands were tied as they have to pay the music companies a penny every time a track is played.
So much for the legal alternative way though.
Your right of course,there is no reason why it should be free.
I paid for about 2 years before i retired,something had to give & we then went onto free,the ads were a pain but we could live with that & as you say it was free. It will kill it for me when the 10 hours per month kicks in,because that works out to approx. 20 mins a day if i've done the old sums correctly.
Unfortunate because we thought it was very good,really enjoyed it.The other half will miss it,big time.
I can possibly see my sub to BT for the sports pack being brought up, but peace will reign until that happens.Who knows i might get away with it.
As a daily user, I completly understand their strategy, if we all want to continue enjoying Spotify, 10€/month is nothing compare if you are buying CD of all artists you like!
SPOTIFY rocks ! The music quality and choice are brillant !
I had previously baulked at the cost, but £10 a month is only a couple of pints' worth, or half a large pizza.... plus I get to stream music via 3G on my iPhone and play it via my Sonos system all over my gaff.
That's an awful lot of stuff for not very much money....
Why should it be free? Spotify is a business, and so are the record labels; they aren't charities, and they don't owe us content for nothing.
whats the point of creating playlists and getting all your favorite tracks in one place and then be told you can only listen to them 5 times, POINTLESS! We are being hearded like sheep into paying for a monthly service to which i am unable to commit..bye bye spotify!
I won't be paying, my pockets simply aren't that deep, and I don't value it that much. If I find the new restrictions...er...restrictive, I'll find other ways of sampling music.
Spotify have, going by previous reports been very successful as a 'free' service, but have not been able to convert enouhg people to subscribers to absolutelt secure its future.
You're right, in the sense that the existing limit on Spotify is 20 hours/month for the free service - this is being cut back to ten hours. And the max five listens/track is a further restriction.
Actually, I thought this already was the case. I am currently a free Spotify user and the amount of time I am allowed to listen is already limited. I never reach that limit, however, as I only use the service to sample new artists which I usually then buy in CD form. I love the service and will probably upgrade to premium for the extra features and, more especially, the 320kbps streaming.