According to the official Spotify Terms of Service, unlimited free music streaming will disappear at the end of next week for early adopters that started using Spotify in the United States on the launch date. Specifically mentioned in the ToS, it states ” The Spotify Service can be accessed as an ad-supported free-to-the-user service having no monthly cap on listening hours or a cap on number of plays of a unique track during the first 6 months following creation of your Spotify account, but thereafter a cap of 10 listening hours per month and a cap of 5 plays per unique track.” Therefore, users that started listening to Spotify on July 14, 2011 will be limited to 10 hours each month and won’t be able to listen to the same song more than five times. That divides out to about 20 minutes of music each day during a typical 30-day month.
Spotify users that wish to continue listening on an unlimited basis will have to upgrade from the ad-supported version to a premium subscription. Broken into two different pricing plans, Spotify Unlimited costs $4.99 a month and allows unlimited music listening without advertisements. Spotify Premium is priced at $9.99 a month and adds the ability to download tracks for offline listening as well as provides mobile device support, music encoded at bitrates up to 320kbps and exclusive content such as early album releases.
After the unlimited music, six-month trial expires for American users, Spotify may see the user base shrink as music lovers jump over to other services like Pandora and Rdio. Pandora recently removed the 40-hour listening cap on the free, ad supported version of the service, but still offers the Pandora One service ($36 a year) for any users seeking an ad-free experience as well as higher bitrate encoding. Check out our Spotify Radio versus Pandora showdown for more information. Rdio offers free music streaming, but the amount of time is dictated by a gauge at the top of the screen. However, the company also offers premium subscription plans. Rdio is also the only company that offers a family plan with a discounted rate on two or three unlimited streams at a time.
According to a recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek, some major artists haven’t fully jumped on the streaming bandwagon and are still skeptical of music services like Spotify. Musicians and groups such as Adele, Tom Waits, Coldplay and The Black Keys don’t believe they will make as much money from streaming as they would with sales on iTunes and other sources. Some of these bands plan to copy Hollywood’s distribution plan and stagger an album release between physical, digital and streaming services. Similar to a company like Netflix, Spotify would get access to new music after an album has already spent an exclusive period of time in other retail channels.
This is a great excuse to switch over to the newly revamped Myspace. Free, unlimited streaming and a music library that is more than three times larger than Spotify with over 42mm songs. Just launched a new player and Myspace Radio.
Why are you mad…because you got a free ride for months? I bought spoty for $10 from the get go because I could see the tremendous value…Plus no more ads and higher quality music! So if you gonna cry about buying a service that gives you unlimited music costs less than buying 4 songs off itunes or that you pay more for that a few days of coffee or energy drinks you need to take your complaining to some place that cares. Sometimes services are actually worth paying for and Spotify is one of them! And its no bait and switch … I remember from the beginning they said they were be going to do that…which obviously some of you choose to ignore. Signed happy Spotify Paying user!
Yup, if people want a free music station, switch to Pandora. You will not be able to listen to the exact artist you want, but it’s free, uncapped, and unlimited.
I use phone for all streaming so its not free for me..$10/month for it is a waste if I can’t download and play offline like MOG can for the same price
I download and play offline using Spotify on my phone…Not sure what you are talking about.
Never got into Spotify, probably never will.
Bait and Switch? The trial terms were pretty clear at sign up, so not really…unless you blindly ignored them all. You will still get 10 hours per month free after six months. If you listen more than that, $4.99 per month is an easy buy — it’s 1/2 the cost of one album download that you won’t need to buy.
Agreed. If a service is worth it, then pay for it. $10/mo is the equivalent of buying one CD each month. I’m currently paying $3/mo for Pandora, but will probably make the switch to Spotify now that they have radio stations (I.E. Music discovery for me!).
I actually have both services… I think Spotify is great to listen to what I want and Pandora is a great music station service. I tried Spotifys radio station and they were ok but they have no rating system like Pandora to help craft a great station like Pandora can.
I do like how you can even combine stations on Pandora to create your own super station. I also heard that the music stations on Spotify do not do as good a job at playing top hits or artists that are well know. Any truth to that?
Yes I agree…When I tried the Spotify app I was constantly hitting skip to the next song because they were playing songs I never heard of and they weren’t very good. Very rare on Pandora.
I have AT&T so there is no such thing as unlimited streaming for me :(
I have AT&T with unlimited data plan, so not sure what you’re talking about
Or, you could look at it and say, “Hey, Spotify gave us something AWESOME for 6 months for FREE to see if we’re willing to pay $4.99/month for it. That’s cool”.
Sounds like Spotify is pulling a Netflix.
Nope they actually informed there users from the beginning they were going to do this.