Spotify overhaul for free users.

[xriqn]

Ok guys, I have great news for you music lovers out there. Spotify is overhauling their free subscription! Yes folks, according to TheVerge, this IS happening! Here's what TheVerge have said:

Quote

There have been reports about upcoming changes to Spotify’s free tier of service over the past couple of weeks, and it appears the music service is now serving the updated UI to select users. While The Verge cannot confirm if this is officially the new form of the free version for mobile expected to roll out next week, these UI changes, which include the option to play songs on demand in select playlists, would make the free tier act more like a Premium account. Spotify declined to comment.

This is VERY interesting, especially since Spotify themselves didn't even comment on this change. On demand songs in playlists and an updated UI on Spotify free are just a couple of the things users such as myself and I'm sure many of you guys have been wanting for years. This would be an absolute game changer if it is confirmed to be the official new form of free spotify for mobile. No longer would we need to go through an entire playlist just to get to a song we like, no longer would we have the clunky old UI spotify has rocked for years! This new UI even includes goodies for individual songs too, here's TheVerge's statement on that:

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Also new is the way individual songs are displayed while playing. Spotify previously used full-screen art with certain prominent playlists like RapCaviar. Now, that has seemingly rolled it out as a standard. In fact, nearly everything in this version of Spotify free is redesigned, from the Search page, which now has colorful boxed prompts like “Workout” and “Mood” to previews under playlist icons that give a heads-up on the songs contained inside (as seen under “New Music Friday,” above and to the right).

It's also a very good thing that free users will also be able to preview songs listed inside a playlist, this will be a feature adored by you and I alike. Finally:

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Spotify went public on April 3rd, and its services are available in 61 countries with an overall user base of 159 million that includes ad-supported free listeners and 70 million paying usersas of January 2018. The company is forecasting as many as 96 million paid subscribers and a 30 percent increase in revenue to $6.6 billion by year’s end. It’s predicted that the company will likely continue to focus on user subscription growth, and making the free experience better to use is crucial to attracting new people to the service.

So, what do you guys think to this amazing massive overhaul of Spotify free? Let me know down in the comments below!

Source: TheVerge https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/17/17248140/spotify-free-tier-new-user-interface-redesign

[Crunchy Dragon]

I moved away from Spotify purely because of how bad the free experience was, everything was stuck on shuffle and they played too many "recommended songs", no matter how I tried to listen to music be it a playlist, artist, album, etc.

 

I've been sticking with YouTube for songs I don't own/want to buy yet. If they fix the problems that cause me to boycott their service, I might consider it again.

[xriqn]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I moved away from Spotify purely because of how bad the free experience was, everything was stuck on shuffle and they played too many "recommended songs", no matter how I tried to listen to music be it a playlist, artist, album, etc.

 

I've been sticking with YouTube for songs I don't own/want to buy yet. If they fix the problems that cause me to boycott their service, I might consider it again.

Yeah you have a good point there. I pm'd you regarding a post I made on another thread btw.

[Crunchy Dragon]

3 minutes ago, xriqn said:

I pm'd you regarding a post I made on another thread btw.

No need to let me know here, I saw it already.

[paddy-stone]

Good news, I literally just took my Amazon gear back off spotify as it wouldn't do what I wanted anymore as a free user now, after cancelling my premium that is. But saying that, the main reason I cancelled was because it would give me odd problems every day or 2 where I had to disconnect and reconnect my account on the Amazon equipment... could be down to Amazon I guess, but still the problem was my family and I couldn't use the spotify account sometimes.

I have since bought a google mini, and signed up for google music... so far it's been smooth sailing for my phones, tablets etc, just can't use it on the Amazon equipment. I wish google and Amazon would pull their heads out of their arses and start letting their users use whichever accounts they want on each others equipment. This has to be the case for others and not just me right?

[Taja]

1 hour ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I moved away from Spotify purely because of how bad the free experience was, everything was stuck on shuffle and they played too many "recommended songs", no matter how I tried to listen to music be it a playlist, artist, album, etc.

 

I've been sticking with YouTube for songs I don't own/want to buy yet. If they fix the problems that cause me to boycott their service, I might consider it again.

Why dont you get the payed version? It is so convenient, now I just manage my songs there. No need to download anything (well, outside spotify anyway).

 

Services like this are the solution to end piracy, in my opinion. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, Taja said:

Why dont you get the payed version? It is so convenient, now I just manage my songs there. No need to download anything (well, outside spotify anyway).

Too expensive. In the long term, I'd rather just pay for all the music I listen to once instead of once monthly to use a convenient app to listen.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Just now, Taja said:

Why dont you get the payed version? It is so convenient, now I just manage my songs there. No need to download anything (well, outside spotify anyway).

No need to download anything? You are downloading every song you play. Every time you play it.

 

[Taja]

2 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Too expensive. In the long term, I'd rather just pay for all the music I listen to once instead of once monthly to use a convenient app to listen.

Well, you must not listen to a lot of music then. I dont consider myself a heavy user, but it is dirty cheap for the amount of music I listen. Heck, I prefer to pay for it than to pirate just because it is convenient. 

3 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

No need to download anything? You are downloading every song you play. Every time you play it.

 

Nope. I downloaded all I need inside spotify, in high quality.

And streaming is different from downloading, at least on what I meant to say anyway. 

2 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 minute ago, Taja said:

 

Nope. I downloaded all I need inside spotify, in high quality.

So which one is it? No downloads or download everything? 

 

1 minute ago, Taja said:

And streaming is different from downloading, at least on what I meant to say anyway. 

Streaming is different from downloading only in the sense I said: streaming implies re-downloading each time.

[Crunchy Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Taja said:

Well, you must not listen to a lot of music then. I dont consider myself a heavy user, but it is dirty cheap for the amount of music I listen. Heck, I prefer to pay for it than to pirate just because it is convenient.

I don't listen to enough music to merit needing something else to listen with. Practically all the songs in the world are on YouTube anyway. I also prefer to support the artists more, which I can do through buying from them directly instead of paying another company to listen to the artist.

[Arika]

1 hour ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I moved away from Spotify purely because of how bad the free experience was, everything was stuck on shuffle and they played too many "recommended songs", no matter how I tried to listen to music be it a playlist, artist, album, etc.

 

I've been sticking with YouTube for songs I don't own/want to buy yet. If they fix the problems that cause me to boycott their service, I might consider it again.

agreed. if i want to find new songs, i'll use Pandora

[Teddy07]

I only use Spotify premium to record songs because I want to store all my music on my devices. Youtube doesnt always have the song I want.

 

No, I am not paying for music.

[Crunchy Dragon]

28 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

I only use Spotify premium to record songs because I want to store all my music on my devices. Youtube doesnt always have the song I want.

 

No, I am not paying for music.

That's piracy.

[Fasterthannothing]

My family loves Spotify but I never use it. I have my own music server that I stream music from. This is mainly due to the fact that I have an extensive music collection that has almost everything I would listen to on Spotify. No I didn't pirate it I either got it for free because a lot of the artist I listen to are small artist that give a lot of their stuff away or I buy it and I've bought a lot. My main playlist has over 400 songs in it and that's only maybe a 1/3 or 1/4 of the songs I have so I see absolutely no need to have Spotify. 

[Taja]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

So which one is it? No downloads or download everything? 

 

Streaming is different from downloading only in the sense I said: streaming implies re-downloading each time.

When you say "download" you are not saying streaming. Nobody "downloads" youtube videos, they stream then. Going out of my way to search, download, organize the files... That is what I was talking about. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 hour ago, Taja said:

When you say "download" you are not saying streaming. Nobody "downloads" youtube videos, they stream then.

Streaming is downloading... the data needs to travel from the server to your device... Just because you delete it as you consume it it doesn't mean there was no data transfer... But feel free to try this: switch off your internet connection and see how much spotify, youtube, or whatever you can "stream"...

 

1 hour ago, Taja said:

Going out of my way to search, download, organize the files... That is what I was talking about. 

That is a different story. You prefer to use Spotify than to manage your own media library. That is an actual difference.

[XenosTech]

4 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Streaming is downloading... the data needs to travel from the server to your device... Just because you delete it as you consume it it doesn't mean there was no data transfer... But feel free to try this: switch off your internet connection and see how much spotify, youtube, or whatever you can "stream"...

 

That is a different story. You prefer to use Spotify than to manage your own media library. That is an actual difference.

lol he must think people like are gonna pay every month for a 50gb+ music library I'm collected over the years (was bigger but lost a lot of music when my psu puffed the magic smoke)

[BuckGup]

4 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I moved away from Spotify purely because of how bad the free experience was, everything was stuck on shuffle and they played too many "recommended songs", no matter how I tried to listen to music be it a playlist, artist, album, etc.

 

I've been sticking with YouTube for songs I don't own/want to buy yet. If they fix the problems that cause me to boycott their service, I might consider it again.

I use it with a pihole which blocks ads completely and on desktop I have unlimited skips for some reason

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, BuckGup said:

I use it with a pihole which blocks ads completely and on desktop I have unlimited skips for some reason

If I use the Web version, then it's fine. On desktop, other than ads it's mostly okay.

[Zodiark1593]

3 hours ago, Taja said:

Why dont you get the payed version? It is so convenient, now I just manage my songs there. No need to download anything (well, outside spotify anyway).

 

Services like this are the solution to end piracy, in my opinion. 

Spotify is pretty worthless for my commute where half my trip lacks cell service.

[suicidalfranco]

Now... If only daily mixes where actually bringing new tracks on a daily basis and not remain unchanged for more than a month at this point

[Mihle]

7 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I don't listen to enough music to merit needing something else to listen with. Practically all the songs in the world are on YouTube anyway. I also prefer to support the artists more, which I can do through buying from them directly instead of paying another company to listen to the artist.

YouTube sound quality isn't that good...

[captain_to_fire]

Isn't this bad to their business model by bringing premium features to free users given that they're actually bleeding money? I think the mobile app of Spotify is better than Apple Music when it comes to navigation and supports more streaming devices but Apple Music has more songs. But when it comes to song discovery and radio stations, Apple Music trumps Spotify.

 

But at least Daniel Ek managed to get Taylor Swift back on Spotify to dissuade young Swifties from leaving.

 

[Mihle]

4 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Spotify is pretty worthless for my commute where half my trip lacks cell service.

If you pay for Spotify you can download songs or playlists to play offline