Spotify Free Limits Play Time

It's been coming for some time. The majors have been trying to force it through and they've got what they wanted: Spotify Free is now limited in terms of time and number of songs played. Shame...

Several majors have come out against unlimited free playback on streaming platforms recently - the word free doesn't seem to be to their liking. The 100% financing by advertising system seems to be struggling, whatever the platform, and the majors want a bigger slice of revenue from this source.

Spotify has just announced a change in the rules for free accounts. Those who sign up in the future or who have signed up since 1st November 2010, will only have unlimited listening for the first six months. Once this period is over, they will be limited to ten hours a month. Anyone who has been signed up for longer will be subject to the new rule as of May 1st.

Spotify says that those who are signed up but don't pay a subscription mainly use the service to discover new music and that the average user won't reach the limit 70% of the time. This is surprising given the fact that users often use streaming services to make up playlists.

While streaming services have been putting the accent on subscription services for a long time now, it's difficult to imagine that the application of such constrictive rules will help to combat piracy.


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