14 DAY TRIAL // Spotify launched in the US about six months ago. In fact, it launched six months ago minus one week. Since then plenty of people have signed up for the service, Spotify saw a big influx of new users after the US launch and after the Facebook integration a couple of months after that.
And those users have been happily enjoying the ability to listen to any song at any time, having only to put up with ads in the desktop client.
But that's about to come to a sudden end, for the very early adopters first and for most other new users gradually.
Spotify's free tier comes with unlimited listens, in the latest iteration, but only for the first six months. After that, when Spotify hopes you're already hooked, you have to start paying to get the most out of Spotify.
Otherwise, you'll have to put up with only 10 hours of free listening per month as well as the limit of playing the same track five times per month at most.
Spotify uses the free tier as a trial period of sorts. Six months is long enough for most people to get accustomed to the service. Those that are going to use will have made up their minds in that time and Spotify hopes they'll start paying to get access to all of their songs as well as all of the others.
At $4.99. €3.90 per month for the basic paid tier, Spotify only costs as much as five tracks from iTunes or Amazon. If you listen to more than five new tracks each month, you're already saving up.
If you want to get mobile access or use Spotify from any sort of device other than your desktop or laptop, you'll have to pay $9.99, €7.82 per month, in the US.