Skip to main content

Spotify to start dropping invite-only, will offer 6-month trials (Update)

spotify-founders-logo-650x439Spotify’s making some moves lately to grab new users. In addition to the announced partnership with Facebook at F8, the Swedish-founded music streaming service may be dropping the exclusive, invitation-only barrier and will be setting up a six month trial period.

Boasting over 10 million users in Europe, Spotify’s launch in the US was eagerly anticipated earlier this year. However, those who didn’t want to shell out the $4.99 for subscription were cast off into invite-only land. Now, according to TechCrunch that may have all changed. Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek says the the invite-only hassle will be getting dropped in the US.

Recommended Videos

“For music to be inherently social it needs to be an open model, and that’s why we decided to do it today,” Spotify representive Angela Watts stated.

Unpaid users, both internationally and in the United States, will have no barriers to using the services. Members will have to sign in to their Facebook account in order to circumvent the need for an invite.

Once the six months expire, free users will most likely lose offline playback and have to suffer through ads. Free limits users to a monthly playback allotment of 10 hours, so be wary that using the Facebook Spotify app will count to that limit. If you decide that the service is worth paying for, Spotify has a $4.99 ad-free plan and the $9.99 premium.

Spotify made its debut in the US earlier this year on July 14. Once it landed here, 1.4 million joined the service in less than a month with more than half paying for subscription. Recently, Pandora revamped their website and removed the 40-hour listening limit to keep up with music streaming competition it was facing.

Update. A spotify representative sent over an email clarifying the new service offer:

“All Spotify accounts come with a 6-month time-limit honeymoon! During this time, there’s no limit to the amount of ad-supported music you can enjoy. After 6 months, you’ll be limited to 10 hours of streaming a month and a 5-play limit for any individual track. Unless, of course, you’ve subscribed by then!”

For European users still in their first six months of free service, you’ll get moved to the unlimited free product for the remainder of your six months. After that six months, the usual limits will apply.

Jeff Hughes
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a SF Bay Area-based writer/ninja that loves anything geek, tech, comic, social media or gaming-related.
How to change margins in Google Docs
Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Read more
What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app
A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Read more
Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs
A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.

Read more