Spotify's mobile app finally goes free

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57615239-94/spotifys-mobile-app-finally-goes-free/

by brt • 13 years ago

43 43 13 years ago

news.cnet.com

Except that what I think of as "Spotify" is the ability to pick a tune from their enormous library and play it with some ads thrown in.

What is actually free, today is the ability to play random songs. Basically no different to other streaming services. Massively caveated mobile experience which is not immediately obvious in the announcement.

I installed the Android mobile app. It took me about 10 minutes to work this out at which point I uninstalled it again.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

dchuk• 13 years ago

The smartphone app, however, doesn't work exactly like the PC service. Users can access their playlists and music albums, but they have to scroll through their lists randomly using a "Shuffle Play" button. Users can't pick the exact song they want to play right away, and will have to shuffle through their playlists.

I pay for Spotify specifically for the mobile app (the ads didn't bother me) and I do not want these changes. I can't tell from the article, but will this pricing change have any effect on the way I currently use the app? I want direct access to songs on my phone, not a Pandora-like system...otherwise I would just pay less and switch back to Pandora...

nixy• 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure these shuffle restrictions apply to users of the free service only.

rohansingh• 13 years ago

Your functionality is unchanged. Free users who previously had no or limited mobile functionality have more functionality.

roguelynn2• 13 years ago

Spotify employee here - it's only for free tier. Your service doesn't change.

ashray• 13 years ago

Hey I just switched over from rDio to spotify. The reasons are that spotify lets you sync different songs/playlists to different devices and rDio does not. Spotify has a better library than rDio.

However, why can I not browse/sync my 'Collection' on spotify's ios apps? Is this feature on the cards ? (I guess having a 'Collection' just on the desktop app makes little sense...) Would love it if you could answer!! Thanks for a great service!

spurgu• 13 years ago

This seems like a surprisingly dumb move. Making a virtual Ipod Shuffle will only serve to annoy users. Which on the other hand is their business model, but I think users will rather uninstall than upgrade to premium because of this.

deathcakes2• 13 years ago

Agreed - I say this as a premium subscriber and have vast experience of the awfulness that is their paid for app, be it on android or ios.

gizzlon• 13 years ago

Really? I'm quite happy with it.. I've been a subscriber for years, definitely worth the $10 if you listen to a lot of music.

For me it's more like $14, but everything is more expensive in Scandinavia :(

nodata• 13 years ago

The vast awfulness of their app? Are you using the current version? I think it's pretty good! What don't you like about it?

tonylemesmer2• 13 years ago

There is a mismatch between the 2 Spotify experiences (desktop free vs. mobile free) which is not obvious until you try it out. That's the annoying bit.

jasonbarone• 13 years ago

My guess is that will get better pretty soon. There was a massive mismatch between Spotify desktop and mobile paid for the longest time, but with every new update it gets better.

res0nat0r• 13 years ago

Why would you uninstall so you can listen to your music in order vs. unsubscribe?

I upgraded long ago to get rid of the annoying ads. I don't know if the mobile service has just the shuffle portion, or shuffle plus ads, but that would make me upgrade even quicker if that is the case.

I used Spotify all the time at work, and premium is a big part so I can listen to it via my iPhone in my car also.

reustle• 13 years ago

The problem with this "shuffle" order is it tends to be the same songs over and over. The songs they get a bigger cut for are played more frequently. Same happens on Rdio stations and Pandora most likely.

plg• 13 years ago

Spotify is currently not available in your country.

(canada)

boo

sivetic• 13 years ago

I've tried rdio for a couple weeks (free trial), and have been very happy with it so far.

shawnc2• 13 years ago

Rdio, in my mind, is far superior in a lot of ways anyway. I had a friend paying for a Spotify for me a few years ago, and switched to Rdio because I liked it better (and not because it was available in Canada too).

cbhl2• 13 years ago

Unfortunately, Rdio's Canada library is different (and from what I can tell, smaller) than the US one.

sorahn• 13 years ago

The only feature I want is to be able to queue specific songs and then have it resume playing a radio station.

yugolarp• 13 years ago

I like Spotify, but the radio feature leaves something to be desired. My buddy recently released an an android app called "SSradio for Spotify" (http://www.ssradio.me). It uses libspotify to re-create SiriusXM like channels over Spotify.

Libspotify was restricted to premium subscribers only (probably still is). But his app was the reason I'm sticking with Spotify. Its like having a sub to Spotify and Sirius.

Best part, libspotify restricts people from displaying ads or charging money..so its free :)

jscheel• 13 years ago

The expectation of spotify, mobile or desktop, is that I can select the songs I want to listen to. This feels like an unexpected behavior to me. That said, I'm sure they have tested the crap out of this to make sure they aren't going to leave a bad taste in users' mouths.

dom96• 13 years ago

I just installed the spotify app on my phone (it's pretty big by the way ~20mb, I wonder why that is) and this latest change doesn't seem to be in effect for me. Is it not rolled out in the UK yet? Personally what I would like to see is the ability for Unlimited users to use the mobile app.

cbhl2• 13 years ago

I wouldn't be surprised if it's US-only due to music licensing agreements. (Getting rights in different countries often requires negotiating with different labels...)

jjdro• 13 years ago

No selecting individual tracks? I'll show those jerks at Spotify with my ten thousand single song playlists. Thanks for adding search filtering on mobile too.

RealGeek2• 13 years ago

On mobile, you can listen to artists, albums and playlists in shuffle mode. Or choose a ready-made playlist to suit your mood.

Even though I have a Spotify premium subscription, this is what I do 99% of the time. Thanks, I will be cancelling my premium subscription today.

Flimm• 13 years ago

You're not annoyed by the ads?

Killswitch• 13 years ago

Nah, just like listening to the radio.

RealGeek2• 13 years ago

Not much, because I primarily use Spotify in car. I am sure the ads would be annoying if I am listening with earphones.

untog• 13 years ago

Surely there's one significantly bigger catch - only paying members can save playlists offline.

valevk2• 13 years ago

Google Music is pushing into more countries. The only logical consequence.

I switched from Spotify to Google, because:

1) Found a few albums, that disappeared from Spotify a few months ago.

2) 7,99 € vs. 9,99 €

3) Google Music allowed me to shuffle all of my music

4) The app is way better. I can always stop the player from the notification bar (on spotify that was a sometimes pain in the ass )

5) When listening to music on Spotify and someone calls, it wasn't possible to adjust the volume, resulting in your ears getting voice-bombed by the caller

darrenkopp• 13 years ago

I just wish google music had a desktop client (or support in chrome) to hook into operating system keyboard shortcuts like play, pause, forward, next, etc.

soundandfeury• 13 years ago

I've been using sway.fm chrome extension and it seems pretty decent: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-mus...

valevk2• 13 years ago

Ah, yes forgot about this. Play music doesn't allow you to save your music for offline listening on your laptop (windows/osx). Which sucka, but wasn't a problem for me, because I always listen on my phone/tablet,

cheshire1373• 13 years ago

Led Zeppelin exclusive to Spotify? Then I won't listen to Led Zeppelin. I hate this exclusive access shit. It doesn't make me pay for the service that has the rights, it makes me avoid the product altogether. Rdio is doing just fine for me.

andrewflnr• 13 years ago

Is it the rights holders who specify the weird distinction between "tablets" and "smartphones"? Otherwise, I can't understand that.

Spotify's mobile app finally goes free

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