You may want to rethink the $9.99 you spend every month to subscribe to Spotify Premium.
To be clear, we're not suggesting you get rid of the stellar music streaming service altogether. Instead, consider switching to the free version which, in coming weeks, will get some major improvements.
Streaming Spotify for free has been an option, on both desktop and mobile devices, since 2014. But the Premium version has always been a more enticing option, with unlimited skips, the chance to play any track (instead of just shuffling songs), and, of course — no ads. While the new, free Spotify still comes with ads, the lines between the paid and unpaid models are blurring.
At an announcement today, Spotify's VP of Product Development, Babar Zafar, said the new, free version of the service aims to provide greater personalization and more control over the music you listen to, while using less data. Ahead a look at the best new features coming to Spotify for free.
Get Playlists That Suit Your Music Taste
When you download the free Spotify app, you'll start by picking at least five of your favorite artists across genres ranging from pop to classical. These choices are used to inform the 15 playlists Spotify provides on your homescreen on a daily basis. Theoretically, the more you listen, the smarter Spotify will become at picking playlists for you. You can also make the service's recommendations better by tapping the heart to show which songs you like.
Listen To The Music You Want, When You Want
Until now, the free version of Spotify has only offered shuffle play. This is fine for a party, but it's not ideal when you want to listen to a specific song from a playlist on your commute. The new, free Spotify fixes this common problem: Those 15 playlists you get every day are on-demand, meaning you can pick individual songs to listen to at any given time. You can play songs from each playlists in any order, and skip as many as you like. It's ideal for when you're obsessing over a single Cardi B track.
Create A Playlist, With Some Help
If you're the friend who always gets tasked with creating the party playlist, you know what a daunting, and time consuming, job that can be. Spotify's new "assisted playlisting" feature — available for free — can help. After naming your playlist, you'll see suggestions for songs to add (you can also search for songs if you have a few specific ones in mind). As you start adding songs, Spotify will select others it thinks you will like. Before long, you'll have a full playlist that will, hopefully, satisfy a demanding crowd.
Keep Your Data In Check
Listening to music on Spotify — much like spending time watching Instagram Stories — uses up a lot of data. This won't matter if you have an unlimited data plan, but for anyone with a fixed amount of data per month, you know the pain of getting a monthly bill with extra charges for going over that allowance.
In the new free version, you'll see an option to opt-in to a data saver mode within Settings. When you turn data saver on, Spotify will cache, or store, music on your phone in advance, something the company says will save up to 75% of your mobile data while streaming. The only downside here is that it will take up some space, but we'd take less space over extra data charges any day.
There's Still One Big Perk To Going Premium
If you've read all of this and wonder why anyone would bother paying for Spotify's Premium service, know that there is still one major benefit: No ads.
The new, free version of Spotify is still ad-supported. So, if you want to listen without paying a penny, you'll have to deal with some streaming interruptions. Still, you can think of the new free service like an upgrade from economy to business class: It's not first class, but it's a major improvement.
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