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- Spotify is giving free users a new perk.
- Non-subscribers can now pick and play specific songs, instead of having to shuffle through playlists.
- About 60% of Spotify’s monthly active users listen for free.
Spotify is giving its free users more premium treatment.
The audio streaming platform said it will let non-paying users pick and play specific songs. Before this, they could only shuffle through playlists and had limits on the number of skipped songs.
Spotify’s free users can also now search for specific songs to play and open song links shared on social media. Spotify said it is rolling out the changes globally from Monday.
A large majority — about 60% — of Spotify’s user base is free users. The company said in July it has 696 million monthly active users, including 276 million subscribers.
However, the free experience still has some limitations. A Spotify spokesperson told TechCrunch that free users will be allotted an “on-demand time,” and once they exceed the daily limit, they will have to abide by Spotify’s previous limited skips per hour rule.
Representatives for Spotify did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on how long the “on-demand time” is.
The release did not give any updates on whether Spotify’s ad experience would change for free users.
These changes for free users come just ahead of Spotify’s biggest advertising season. The company said in its July earnings report that ad revenue peaks in the fourth quarter because of higher ad demand during the holiday season.
In July, the company reported that its subscribers had grown 12% compared to the same period the year before, and its free user base had grown 10.5%.
According to its earnings report, revenue in its latest quarter had grown 10% compared to the year before, to 4.2 billion euros, or about $4.95 billion.
Spotify’s stock price has risen about 108% in the past year.
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