Spotify, the popular Swedish startup, has upped the ante in the music space when it said recently it would enable free streaming on smartphones and tablets.
Desktop users have been able to stream ad-supported music free of charge since Spotify’s inception, but mobile streaming has always required a $9.99 Spotify Premium subscription. This ad-supported free desktop tier has now migrated to mobile.
Now available on the App Store, the new Spotify version 0.9.2 fixes many bugs and flips the switch on free mobile streaming for everyone (they’ve been rolling this out gradually), here are your caveats…
NOTE: although many people were able to access the new free tiers, it was a staggered release so free streaming on mobile is now finally available in every market where Spotify is available.
As mentioned before, the biggest disadvantage is song randomization – you can’t play songs for free in a specific order. You still can search for specific songs, but the app will play songs from a specific album or artist in random order.
This being a free tier, you’ll of course have to put up with some advertising. On the flip side, the free mobile tier does permit you to skip songs, favorite a track, access your playlists on mobile devices and more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-EIBBbxnfA
Features include:
Your music: Listen to all the playlists you’ve created and playlists from the people you follow. Spotify lets you discover new music, save, shuffle and share.
Your favorite artists: Want to listen to a certain artist? Just hit shuffle play, sit back and listen to their entire catalogue. Don’t settle for something similar. Don’t settle for just one track from the artist you want to hear every 20 minutes.
Discover great new playlists: Going for a jog or to the gym? We’ve got the playlist to help you go the extra mile. We know you just want the perfect music for a specific moment in time – and we’ve got you covered. There’s something for every mood, genre or moment.
Put simply, on-demand streaming still requires a subscription, which also includes the handy offline feature and removes all advertising.
Go ahead, grab Spotify from the App Store now.
The download comes in at 35.4MB and iOS 6 or later is required.
Have you tried Spotify’s free mobile streaming yet?
If so, chime in with your thoughts down in the comments.