• Spotify Wants to Allow Free Streaming on Phones and Tablets

    by
    Anthony Bouchard
    Published on 2013-02-20 04:31 PM
    22 Comments Comments


    Spotify is apparently pushing to bring its free streaming service to smartphones and tablets, a feature that has existed only for personal computers for a while now. According to a report from The Verge, Spotify is expected to ask music labels in coming weeks for not only price breaks, but also to extend their free streaming service to mobile devices.

    Spotify users can subscribe to Spotify Premium for $9.99 per month to enable music streaming from the mobile application on smartphones and tablets. The popular music-streaming service also offers a free version of the service where users can listen to music at no cost on the computer with ads. Due to licensing terms, they are not permitted to allow this streaming service for free on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets at this point in time.

    Spotify currently offers a radio feature for free to mobile users, which was added to the mobile application in the middle of last year, on devices like smartphones and tablets; however, it is different from the library-based streaming feature that Spotify Premium users can access. The radio feature offers pre-mixed lists of songs relevant to the radio station, while the library feature allows users to search for songs they want to hear and play them on demand.

    Should Spotify manage to get the music labels to agree to these new terms, it would be great for potential and existing Spotify users, and a win for the music industry market. It’s much more convenient to carry a smartphone or tablet around with us, rather than a personal computer, when we want to listen to our favorite music tracks on the go.

    Sources: The Verge via MacRumors
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Spotify Wants to Allow Free Streaming on Phones and Tablets started by Anthony Bouchard View original post
    1. Categories:
    2. iPhone,
    3. iPad,
    4. iOS,
    5. AppStore,
    6. iPad,
    7. Software
    Comments 22 Comments
    1. Colwood's Avatar
      Colwood - 2013-02-20, 04:39 PM
      they won't even let me make an account because I'm Canadian . I constantly use US sites and USD seems a little petty.
    1. klouud's Avatar
      klouud - 2013-02-20, 04:58 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Colwood View Post
      they won't even let me make an account because I'm Canadian . I constantly use US sites and USD seems a little petty.
      well there is only one road in Canada. So, there's that...
    1. WithinTemptationFan's Avatar
      WithinTemptationFan - 2013-02-20, 05:03 PM
      Hopefully this happens. I miss all the music I had on my spotify account. I usually never have time to access the application on my PC and being able to stream the songs on my iPhone for free would be great
    1. GrumpySod's Avatar
      GrumpySod - 2013-02-20, 05:12 PM
      Don't see it happening! The music labels are already tired of not getting their money, also think apple would block it as well as they still to launch their rumoured radio service
    1. Colwood's Avatar
      Colwood - 2013-02-20, 05:37 PM
      no point
    1. wolverinemarky's Avatar
      wolverinemarky - 2013-02-20, 05:52 PM
      well i may leave pandora to run spotify if its free and the jailbreak community tweaks it so i have no ads and infinite skips lol
    1. highboi's Avatar
      highboi - 2013-02-20, 07:36 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by GrumpySod View Post
      Don't see it happening! The music labels are already tired of not getting their money, also think apple would block it as well as they still to launch their rumoured radio service
      By your logic they will pull pandora when their radio app is launched? I highly doubt that.
    1. iPittsburgh's Avatar
      iPittsburgh - 2013-02-20, 07:46 PM
      I just got spotify premium for the mobile streaming
    1. mortopher's Avatar
      mortopher - 2013-02-20, 08:12 PM
      They need to work on upgrading their features before this. While I love spotify, the UI and features for it are absolutely horrible.
    1. peakay's Avatar
      peakay - 2013-02-20, 08:44 PM
      I will be a bit sceptic on this one. Spotify is great for getting your music out there, but unless your on a huge label, it's real hard for your music to be heard randomly. I am sure the deal that currently in place has a statement that says how much of the percentage of the songs thru the radio app are major labels music.

      I currently pay for the $9 service, and love it. I just wish the artists saw more of the money that comes from me enjoying there music. On a major label the money will add up, but smaller bands and small labels get hurt. You have to realize that Rapsody and Spotify pay out $0.007 per song. That's it. I would like to see some of the more smaller bands and labels be able to effectively have their music come up in the random radio stations.
    1. camxposure's Avatar
      camxposure - 2013-02-21, 03:36 AM
      What the F is the big deal as far as licensing... Why would you have to pay for a service that's on a desktop for FREE, the mobile broadband industry should love the usage of DATA from idiots who stream carelessly... I'd rather stream at home with a throttled Internet connection waiting for streams to buffer on my $120 40Mb/sec broadband... G'damn American commerce!!!
      Stay tuned for Amish Mafia & Savage Family Diggers, ya schmucks!!!
    1. Mrteacup's Avatar
      Mrteacup - 2013-02-21, 04:06 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by Colwood View Post
      they won't even let me make an account because I'm Canadian . I constantly use US sites and USD seems a little petty.
      It's not petty it's all legal. They can't expand their business into Canada and not pay taxes etc. you act like they do this to hate you/Canadians or they have some petty thing about letting others sign up. It's strictly legal, why on earth wouldn't they want your business..
    1. spgpetey's Avatar
      spgpetey - 2013-02-21, 04:36 AM
      It would be nice but like someone else said, Spotify is getting paid via the monthly fee so its easy for them to ask someone else to take a hit..
    1. Anthony Bouchard's Avatar
      Anthony Bouchard - 2013-02-21, 04:37 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by spgpetey View Post
      It would be nice but like someone else said, Spotify is getting paid via the monthly fee so its easy for them to ask someone else to take a hit..
      Spotify only gets to keep under 10% of their earnings. Their industry isn't very profitable for them:



      via The Verge.
    1. spgpetey's Avatar
      spgpetey - 2013-02-21, 04:54 AM
      Good info, I stand corrected...
    1. flash66's Avatar
      flash66 - 2013-02-21, 03:48 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by mortopher View Post
      They need to work on upgrading their features before this. While I love spotify, the UI and features for it are absolutely horrible.
      I pay the 10 bucks a month for the service. It's great with the assistant love tweak to ask Siri to play just about any song in my car. What pisses me off about it however is, most times I ask for a particular song, I get some cover band or Karaoke version. Albeit that's probably because of Siri not being able to choose which version I want to hear. Still it is an interstellar jukebox!

      Quote Originally Posted by camxposure View Post
      What the F is the big deal as far as licensing... Why would you have to pay for a service that's on a desktop for FREE, the mobile broadband industry should love the usage of DATA from idiots who stream carelessly... I'd rather stream at home with a throttled Internet connection waiting for streams to buffer on my $120 40Mb/sec broadband... G'damn American commerce!!!
      Stay tuned for Amish Mafia & Savage Family Diggers, ya schmucks!!!
      I sense a good tweak on the horizon to trick Spotify into thinking the mobile is a pc! Yeah! Get coding!
    1. buttamix's Avatar
      buttamix - 2013-02-21, 04:28 PM
      Thats cool. I was able to try out spotifys premium package for a limited time only. Its was really freakin amazing!!! So if spotify can get the ok. Thats whats up!!!
    1. hunterw's Avatar
      hunterw - 2013-02-21, 08:49 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by WithinTemptationFan View Post
      Hopefully this happens. I miss all the music I had on my spotify account. I usually never have time to access the application on my PC and being able to stream the songs on my iPhone for free would be great
      try grooveshark mobile. its free and its still in beta but works well.

      Grooveshark Mobile
    1. mlee19841's Avatar
      mlee19841 - 2013-02-21, 10:24 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by hunterw View Post
      try grooveshark mobile. its free and its still in beta but works well.

      Grooveshark Mobile
      Heard about that app before is it worth it.
    1. flash66's Avatar
      flash66 - 2013-02-21, 10:33 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by hunterw View Post
      try grooveshark mobile. its free and its still in beta but works well.

      Grooveshark Mobile
      How is this free? It says after the trial it's also 9 bucks. Am I missing something here?
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