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MUSIC STREAMING COMPANY Spotify is planning to launch a free ad-supported version of its service next week.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the new service will allow users to play a limited number of tracks on mobile, but it will also allow users to listen to playlists and collections they’ve created.
The company has invited journalists to an event on 11th December where it’s expected to announce the new feature.
Spotify has agreed licensing deals with Sony, Universal and Warner to use their music on the new service. It had been negotiating with the three companies for nearly a year over the rates it would pay them and how much control users will have over what they listen to.
Currently, the service is only free on desktop. Mobile users are required to sign up for premium first, either through the 30-day free trial or by paying €9.99 per month, before they can use the app. Premium users have access to unlimited, on-demand music and can listen to its 20 million song catalogue on any device.
Spotify has 20 million active users globally, and it has seen 4.5 billion hours of music streamed this year. More than 6 million of its members are paid subscribers.
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I pay for Spotify, use it all the time in work. My phone has much more free space that would normally be full of music. No need for a harddrive full of music either. Youtube is grand for listening to music with a desktop, but not from a phone, doesn’t play in the background. Spotify also works with Last.fm which is nice.
i love spotify. its a convenient legal way to listen to a vast array of music online with ads every now and then and playlists. this announcement of a free mobile service makes it even better. i never paid for spotify i just listen to the few ads as its a small price to pay.
“Spotify has agreed licensing deals with Sony, Universal and Warner to use their music”
Their music. It belongs to the artists, dammit!
It actually doesn’t, it belongs to the labels. That’s how it works unfortunately.
I’m a great fan of spotify and the price of €9.99 per month is well worth it. There is a huge choice with every taste catered for. Great new playlists are appearing all the time or you can create your own. Once you are signed up you can store up to 3,000 songs to play off line which is great if you only use an ipad and you can then play them back in the car or wherever you are. Great for long journeys. The service is being improved all the time.
3333 songs :-)
Downloading remains superior, and free.
Plus there’s always youtube…
Youtube doesn’t get me TV shows and Movies before they even come out in Ireland. ;)
This is only to take on itube, by far the best, but wont work if there’s only limited tracks available
Straight up downloading doesn’t introduce you to new music and play lists you would never discover otherwise. Spotify is a very good service and if you’d rather steal from artists and record labels than support them then I feel sorry for you.
Why would I bother paying for spotify when I can use muzu.tv or tunein radio? ¿
Most songs are on YouTube anyway including some nice remixes which are hard to find elsewhere
Download iTube, it’s free, always up to date, saves playlists and has genre generated playlists all without taking up memory. Unbelievable app.
Thanks for that! Just downloaded it there! Always found it so annoying that YouTube won’t stay on in the background!
Great call Rory. Never heard of it before now. Nice one!!
Torrent
I prefer Google music myself..
Apple iTunes Radio will be available in Ireland soon for iPhones, which is essentially a better free version of spotify
iTunes Radio will only be free with ads after every song. The paid version will only be €24.99 a year though, which includes your iTunes Match service which I use heavily to. Means being able to stream your entire iTunes library. And a hell of a lot cheaper than spotify or google play
I still prefer Spotify as I can choose what I want to listen to. iTunes Radio is just that…a radio station.
I havnt bought much from iTunes so Match is no good to me.
I’ll be sticking with Spotify:-)
I’ve never bought anything iTunes but use Match and it’s great. It scans your library of dodgy downloads and matches to iTunes library allowing you to stream or download high quality tracks. It’s a great service and great value.
Means I then have my home collection in phone, work computer etc.
I have an ap called Anyplay. It’s essentially a free spotify. It’s by far my most used ap. It’s no longer available in the App Store but I have it saved onto my PC if anyone wants it ;)
I use Deezer which is free with my contract similar to spotify have it playing constantly
This has always been the way with spotify since the company began. New to Ireland maybe but not exactly headline news.
Anyone know what the limited amount will be? No mention above and the WSJ article is subscription only.
You can listen to approx. 100 songs per month with advertising in between. The way to avoid the ads is to set up a playlist and then there’s no breaks. In Sweden at least, they might introduce something different to Ireland but can’t see it happening. Have had an account since they started.
Try the itube app free in App Store uses cache downloading
So once watched it’s saved
Full music videos
have your say