Spotify is restricting its free service to put a brake on your heavy music streaming. It's cutting the maximum monthly listening time in half to 10 hours, and introducing caps on how many times you can play individual songs.
The changes were announced this morning, and come into force six months after users first register for the company's free service. The 10-hour monthly limit is half the 20 hours that you're currently able to listen to on the Spotify Open free service, but it's the song caps that may cause just as much of a stir: you'll only be able to play individual tracks five times ever.
Here's Spotify's official statement, from chief content officer Ken Parks:
"We've got to balance a number of priorities. Chief amongst those priorities is to keep the free service, which is what makes Spotify unique, and what you're seeing here is a balance of these priorities. We've shown that the model is doing extremely well, but as things stand we need to tweak the service to ensure everyone has access to legal music in the long term."
Before you start throwing rotten fruit at Spotify as a protest -- not a good thing for your computer monitor in any case -- you have to read between the lines of this statement. Spotify has always stressed that it thinks its free service is a crucial ingredient in persuading people to eventually pay to upgrade to Spotify Premium or Unlimited.
That is to say, people use Spotify for free for six months, or even a year or more, and at some point realise they think it's worth paying for. More than 1 million people have made that decision so far. Some of the company's record label partners (and shareholders), however, think Spotify could be nudging users along a little more when it comes to upgrading.
Hence these restrictions, which are clearly the result of some seriously hard-balled negotiations between Spotify and the record labels. It gets to keep running a free service, but the labels can restrict some of the heavier usage in an effort to get more people paying for music. If this works, both sides will be happy.
Our honest view? It comes down to a philosophical question: if you're using Spotify for more than 10 hours a month, isn't it worth paying a fiver to get the desktop-only Unlimited service? You can spend that much on a glass of wine, after all. But let us know what you think of the changes, and what they'll mean for how you use Spotify.
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Comments 27
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Anonymous 14 April, 2011 10:11
Does this effect people who signed up to Spotify before 'Spotify open'? As for me the free service had been unrestricted, other than ads, until now.
Ian Morris 14 April, 2011 10:22
If you're going to pay £5 a month for access to the desktop only client, use Napster instead, where you get 5 free MP3s per month. A much better deal, albeit with worse desktop software.
Anonymous 14 April, 2011 10:31
they may as well take the playlist feature from the free version as well then
Pokeh 14 April, 2011 10:53
I'm using Spotify Free (the invite only version when Spotify first came out) and not Spotify Open that currently has the limit.
For me the whole point of Spotify is that it's free. Start chucking in a couple of MP3's every month for my fiver and maybe I'll start paying - but just for streaming music? No chance.
I hate it when services go down this road in order to push people towards the premium model. Rather than making the premium model seem more attractive (like giving you MP3s each month) they just take he easy way out and take features away from people using the ad-supported version. I never feel compelled to hand my money over to businesses that do this.
Anonymous 14 April, 2011 11:12
I dont like memberships - thats why I am using the wifi2hifi app for streaming Spotify from the computer to the iPhone.
skapete 14 April, 2011 12:17
@Anonymous 1: This restriction is hitting those who signed up for free before the 20 hours a month cap first, and in 6 months will hit those who have signed up since the 20 hour cap. Bah!
Anonymous 14 April, 2011 12:42
@Pokeh
Why the fuss about not getting free mp3s? The premium version allows you to download tracks and playlists to your mobile and listen to them offline.
The same as owning them but without the hassle of storage.
ace9988 14 April, 2011 13:43
has somebody come across something similar to the "wifi2hifi" app for iphones?
anonymous 14 April, 2011 15:53
Just to confirm - the new limits apply to all free users - both Spotify Free and Spotify Open.
Pokeh 14 April, 2011 16:07
@Anonymous It's not the same at all. If you unsubscribe from Spotify then you lose all of that music. I mean an MP3 that you get to keep forever.
Naryan 14 April, 2011 18:51
I still have the free unlimited version, acting as it should, but if I didn't, this would be enough for me to just forget Spotify altogether. It just wouldn't be worth it any more.
olivierm 14 April, 2011 18:59
Spotify doesn't make music free, it makes music discovery free in a way more convenient than youtube and myspace but it only goes so far. It's a business, wants to pay staff and investors and right owners so you have to pay for wider access.
Anonymous 14 April, 2011 19:21
This is will be the beginning of the end for Spotify.
grindboy 14 April, 2011 20:26
I'm on the Spotify Free account. Before this I'd already decided that once I have a regular job (Uni student) I'd probably fork out for the premium version, mostly because of the Android app. The ads have never bothered me. However this move by Spotify doesn't endear me towards them and I'd say that being forced over to the paid model is going to make me more likely to move to other services, as Ian said napster seems like a good substitute and since they give you 5 free songs I can simply sync them to my phone and still enjoy music on the go as I would have with the Spotify android app.
Anonymous 15 April, 2011 09:25
I've been a very happy premium user for over a year now. I use Spotify at home, at work and on my mobile. It's just too convenient to give up, and a tenner a month is hardly something that anyone will notice leaving their account. Sites like Grooveshark and YouTube just don't have the usability/quality that Spotify has for listening to music. I still use pirate sites for stuff I cannot find on Spotify though...
What I really want to know is how the 30% Apple subscription fee is going to effect iPhone users.
Anonymous 16 April, 2011 09:48
its not so wrong to ask money for the services and they need money too to keep spotify up. but it just is weird that there only changes that make people less likely to use spotify. and i dont know if these restrictions are also for excisting users, cause that would make it even more stupid. some people i think will leave spotify forever bacause of those restrictions
Anonymous 17 April, 2011 11:07
I'll just move along and get my sounds elsewhere...... Bye bye Spotify!
Anonymous 17 April, 2011 20:06
Ahh everything goes down the pan eventually. First more adverts, then albums i had starred just disappearing from the service. I paid the £10 for 5 months and the streaming was fairly dreadful especially as the 3G on your phone can dip any minute. I cancelled and glad I did, on the basic principle that companies get too greedy and lsoe the appeal that won them all those loyal customers.
Anonymous 17 April, 2011 23:03
I have the premium and it's awesome music wherever I go, just like a artist needs money to keep them going and to make new songs spotify needs the same. Stop being little tramps and crying over it £5 a month is nothing and you get all the music you want.
Anonymous 3 May, 2011 21:11
I hardly listen to Spotify for more than 10 hours a month - what bugs me is that you can't listen to individual songs more than 5 times in TOTAL...how rubbish is that? If I pay for the premium version I still don't own the songs. I might be able to play them offline but once I cancel my membership, that's it. I agree music is still cheaper than it used to be when we had to buy CD's - But I'd rather pay money for the MP3's than paying Spotify for a subscription every month!
Anonymous 13 May, 2011 09:52
If you spend that much on a glass of wine, you're a blooming idiot.
Anonymous 13 May, 2011 16:19
I am one of the many many people who will just stop using spotify now. I don't mind the ads, or even a cap on the number of hours I can listen to as a free user; but only able to listen to a track 5 times EVER??!! Absolutly no point in using Spotify any more then and I will not be forced into paying when I use it so little!! Bye bye Spotify, you had a good thing going once but you've ruined it.
Anonymous 13 May, 2011 16:26
I am one of the many many people who will just stop using spotify now. I don't mind the ads, or even a cap on the number of hours I can listen to as a free user; but only able to listen to a track 5 times EVER??!! Absolutly no point in using Spotify any more then and I will not be forced into paying when I use it so little!! Bye bye Spotify, you had a good thing going once but you've ruined it.
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 15:24
very good
Anonymous 22 June, 2011 14:40
You can still use it as a local music player, but if you want to stream from spotify's servers, you have to pay. But I would rather pay for something else than spotify premium
-techytbone
anonymous 4 September, 2011 10:07
I use Spotify to check recommended albums before I buy them. The 10 hour limit is fine by me; any higher and I'd go bankrupt downloading too many albums from Amazon...
anonymous 14 April, 2013 15:20
The services spotify provides is worth the premium membership in my mind. What is a hundred dollars or so a year to be constantly up to date on up and coming artists, listen to new albums almost immediately ,have all the apps, and have that across ipad, iphone, and your desktop. It also turns your loaded itunes library into the ultimate jukebox through your home stereo in my case. People wining about cost are probably the same ones lining up at starbucks five times a month for five dollar coffee's. Do the math, it's worth it. The service is awesome.