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Spotify reportedly plans to make free music streaming plan more flexible in move to grow user base

Shortly after officially going public, a new report indicates that Spotify is planning a new version of its free music platform. Bloomberg reports today that Spotify is “tweaking” its free music platform to make it easier to use, though details remain sparse…

The report says that Spotify’s central goal is to make its free platform easier to use on mobile. What this means, apparently, is that free users on mobile will be able to access playlists more easily, as well as have more control over what they hear.

With the updated service, free mobile listeners will be able to access playlists more quickly and have more control over what songs they hear on top playlists, mimicking Spotify’s ad-free subscription product. The basic package is $9.99 a month.

Currently, users of the free, ad-supported Spotify tier on mobile devices are unable to pick the exact songs that they want to hear from a playlist or album, but rather must listen on shuffle. Today’s report seems to imply that users will have some additional control over the songs they here with these changes, though it still doesn’t sound like complete control.

Spotify’s free, ad-supported tier has been criticized by those in the music industry for quite some time. Those people claim that Spotify’s free service undervalues music and thus harms artists. The company, however, relies on the free platform to grow its user base, which sat at around 157 million at the end of last year, with 71 million of those being paid subscribers.

Last week, Spotify teased that it will make a “news announcement” in New York on April 24th, sending invites to members of the press. Some reports have indicated that the streaming music company is planning its own smart speaker hardware, which could be the star of that press event. It now also appears that we’ll hear more about this updated free service, as well.

What do you make of Spotify’s plans for updating its free service to give users more control over playlists and playback? Let us know down in the comments!


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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com