Spotify Mobile - Free From 11th December?

Allyall

It looks like Spotify is going to be free from Tomorrow, for Mobile Devices.
It will be similar to the free service that already exists for PC's, with adverts, but there will also be some limitations and it may work on a radio themed basis, choosing some of the tunes for you to listen to.

From the Wall Street Journal

Spotify AB is planning a free, ad-supported version of its streaming-music service on mobile devices, according to people familiar with the matter, after previously making mobile users pay a monthly fee.

The Sweden-based music company has reached licensing deals with all three of the global music companies to use their recordings on the new service, these people added.

Until now, a free version of Spotify was available only on desktop and laptop computers.

Spotify, which has 6 million paying subscribers and 20 million active users world-wide, has been negotiating for nearly a year with the three major record companies— Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group and Access Industries' Warner Music Group—over the rates it will pay them to play songs on the free mobile service, and over how much direct control users have over what they listen to, these people said.

The new ad-supported offering will allow nonpaying mobile users to play a limited number of songs on demand, but will mostly serve up music based on the user's input, much like custom radio services such as Pandora Media Inc., these people said.

Until now, Spotify's free users have been able to play music on demand, with ads, on their computers—but they can't use the service from their mobile phones or tablets, unless they enter their credit-card information to sign up for the 30-day premium-service trial.

Loads more info HERE

Sign Up For Spotify here

ThisRegard

It's not the fully functional mobile version though is it, ie no downloading onto the device?

Allyall

ThisRegard wrote: »

It's not the fully functional mobile version though is it, ie no downloading onto the device?

No, it won't be premium, it's to compete against all the other semi-free services, while still convincing us it's worth signing up for.

But it will be streaming music of (a lot of) your choice. Which will be cool to have.

Allyall

They've now added this.

Presumably to compete with Sony's (€3 for 3 months) and Deezers new offers

In case you missed the news, you can now get Spotify on your mobile or tablet, absolutely free. Find the right music and shuffle play it on any iOS or Android device.
But what about listening to music on your computer – with no time restrictions?
In the past, we had to restrict your listening time to some hours a month once a 6-month unlimited grace period had passed. But now, if you haven’t noticed, there’s no more time limit if you are using Spotify for free. We have removed these caps completely across all platforms – you can listen to your favourite songs as many times as you like, for as long as you want.
That’s right, no more time limits.
Music makes you happy – why limit your happiness? #FreeYourMusic

loveacca

Excellent

Vinz Mesrine

You're only allowed to skip 6 tracks in an hour, a bit annoying considering it's on a random shuffle constantly.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Still think grooveshark is better value for money, 38 euro for the year with the ability to download stuff to your phone/tablet/whatever. It serves my music tastes very well and is a third of the price of Spotify.

Allyall

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

You're only allowed to skip 6 tracks in an hour, a bit annoying considering it's on a random shuffle constantly.

I don't mind that, as long as the 7th track i'd want to skip isn't one i hate.

That would be annoying.
I don't skip too often, except if a VA album has crept in, then I usually just want to skip the whole album, with the exception of OGWT and maybe one or two more.

loyatemu

donkeyoaty0099 wrote: »

Still think grooveshark is better value for money, 38 euro for the year with the ability to download stuff to your phone/tablet/whatever. It serves my music tastes very well and is a third of the price of Spotify.

Grooveshark are pirates though, might as well just torrent music directly rather than giving them your money.

Mr Velo

donkeyoaty0099 wrote: »

Still think grooveshark is better value for money, 38 euro for the year with the ability to download stuff to your phone/tablet/whatever. It serves my music tastes very well and is a third of the price of Spotify.

That may be the case - but for people with iOS devices, it will only work if the device has been jailbroken.
That's enough to put people off it IMO.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Agress with the jailbreaking putting people off. Yeah I could torrent it alright but the convenience of grooveshark means I'm happy to pay.

Tinie

Google music beats them all.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Yeah think I'll try Google music next year, just renewed my grooveshark subscription so not willing to pay just yet. Google know pretty much everything about me anyway so what harm.

Inbox

There's another streaming service and its a higher quality sound than any other. I think its qobuz or something like that. Free trial anyhow.

TheDoc

So whats the story with spotify at the moment, they didnt go to much effort advising existing customers.

I pay the full subscription per month, mostly because I stream music via my phone in the car. I can do this now for cheaper then the €11 quid a month?

ThisRegard

Without the subscription you still won't be able to store music offline and I think you're still limited to how many songs you can skip.

K.C

Doesnt seem to be any limitation on skipping songs

ThisRegard

Maybe not, but I did read that you still cannot select the exact song they'd listen to but shuffle through their playlist to get to it.