More free music!
Until now, the free version of Spotify was only available on desktop/laptop computers, and mobile users needed a subscription to stream on demand. Spotify has just announced that it will launch free streaming on mobile devices starting Wednesday, December 11th. The company has spent the last year negotiating with the major record companies over the rates that will be paid to play free songs, and a deal has now been reached with Sony, Universal, and Warner. The service will be ad-supported, and allow users to play a limited number of songs on-demand, and will mostly offer pre-made playlists.
Investors have recently been increasing pressure on the company to increase the number of people who subscribe to its premium service, so this move may seen counter intuitive. However, the company believes that offering a limited free service will add overall users on mobile and entice more to make Spotify their featured music destination and invest in Spotify's full catalog.
It will be interesting to track this development and see how long free music lasts. It will be an indication on how fair and successful the deal will be for both the music companies and Spotify itself.
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