Spotify Now Free on Mobile Devices with New Shuffling Feature

Spotify announced this morning that it is bringing its streaming service to mobile devices (including tablets) for free. This means you can access your playlists and starred music on your phone or tablet without paying for a subscription, but the only catch is that you have to listen to the music in shuffle mode, so it’s not true on-demand.

Furthermore, it will be ad-free, and the offline playback and on-demand listening will only be available to paying subscribers. Previously, users were able to use Spotify for free on their mobile devices, but only the Radio feature of the service, similar to what Pandora offers.

However, Spotify claims that its free users will be getting more for their buck (or lack thereof) on Spotify, noting that the free tier on other music streaming services don’t let you access your playlists starred music, even if you can only shuffle play them on Spotify.

https://youtu.be/H-EIBBbxnfA

The free tier of Spotify will let you pick an artist or playlist to listen to, but the only catch is that you can’t pick which exact song you want to listen to, or choose what order you want certain songs to play in. Plus, there will be ads that will play in between every few songs, but Spotify assures us that ad time will be much less than what you hear on commercial radio. Furthermore, free users can also skip through songs they don’t like and add songs to playlists.

Aside from the new features that frugal folks can take advantage of, Spotify also announced that the music of Led Zeppelin will be making its way to the streaming service, making Spotify the first music streaming service to offer the music from the classic band — Metallica also being another.

Last but not least, Spotify launched in 20 more markets, bringing the total number of countries up to 55. Notable new additions include Chile, Hungary, Czech Republic, Panama and Paraguay.