Music streaming giant Spotify has announced it’ll no longer restrict users of its free, ad-funded offering to five plays for each of its multi-million-strong library of tracks.
Since April 2011, those unwilling for fork over £5 a month for the Unlimited service or £10 a month for the Premium offering have seen tracks become unavailable for streaming once they’ve been enjoyed a measly five times.
It has proved a bit of a stickler for users who find a song, album or artist they really like, but it has probably been a great success for Spotify in terms of tempting users into upgrading to the uncapped monthly subscriptions.
In a post on the company blog Spotify said it was happy to be lifting the restrictions, as it has across other European countries.
The post read: “We’ve got some mighty fine news for all Spotify Free users. From today, there’s no more 5 play-per-song limit. You can listen to your favourite songs as many times as you like.”
Free users will still be limited to 10 hours of playback per month, but the good news is, if they want to listen to ‘Call Me Maybe’ on repeat for those ten hours, then they will be free to do so.
Those who’re newer to Spotify won’t notice a difference as those who’ve been tuning in for less than six months “can already listen to whatever you want, as often as you like,” the company said.
The move comes as Spotify seeks to make itself more accessible and visible to users around the globe. The Swedish-born company currently is currently trialing a web-based player, which offers access through browsers, while it continues to roll-out new social tools.
France is now the only European company who has a per-song restriction in place, while the United States, Australia and New Zealand have no caps for songs or hours.
Via Telegraph
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
