14 DAY TRIAL // Spotify has announced a couple of changes that seemed somewhat inevitable at this point. The music streaming service also made some changes that were not announced. All are related to the new partnership with Facebook.
Spotify has announced that it is dropping the Open tier, which offered users free, ad-supported listening for a limited time each month.
Instead, Spotify is debuting the Free tier, which offers unlimited listening, with ads, for six months, and some limits after that.
"First, we become better friends with Facebook. Now we’re removing time limits for all new users. It seems only right to give you more time to discover more music," Spotify announced.
"So, from today, there'll be no more Spotify Open. Everybody who listens to Spotify for free will simply have a Spotify account," it said.
The move is a good one as there won't be any downsides for Spotify users, new or old. Any new user trying to sing up will get six moths of free, ad-supported service.
They'll get to listen to as much music as they want to, to allow them to have a good idea of what Spotify offers.
After six months, they'll either have to sign up for one of the paid subscriptions, or make do with 10 hours of listening per month and a 5-plays limit on each individual tracks.
New users have another surprise waiting for them, you can only sign up for Spotify if you have a Facebook account now, a move that has not been received well by potential new users.
Back to the new Free accounts, if you already have an Open account, but for less than six months, you'll get all limits lifted for the remainder of that period. If you have had an Open account for more than six months nothing changes. Likewise, nothing changes for paying users.