Spotify is relaxing one of its most longstanding restrictions: free-tier members can now play an on-demand track through the service. It’s a significant change from the shuffle-only approach that has characterized years of the ad-supported version, and one that gives casual listeners a simple way to listen to the perfect song — at least once — before receiving bac k into shuffle mode.
How the new on-demand play will work
With free, they can enter the title, click on the song and start playing instantaneously. Once that selected track is done, Spotify will return to a shuffled order, so you still can’t play an album or artist discography in sequential order without Premium. Skip forward all you want, but expect the familiar guardrails to stick around; the company hasn’t specifically addressed whether it’s relaxing (or tightening) its typical cap on hourly skips.
Links to songs will also work in a more intuitive way. If a friend shares a track with you via a Spotify link, free listeners can play it right away instead of waiting for the song to appear in a playlist or radio mix. It’s a simple tweak that eliminates the friction from how people are already sharing music in chats and social feeds.
Spotify is also offering some personalization benefits to extend to the service. Free users can now design their playlist cover using images, colors and text — a flourish that was previously the domain of Premium accounts. The move will not change the way music sounds, but brings the look and feel of the free tier up-to-date for the social era.
What remains restricted on the free tier
Audio stays up at 160kbps on the free tier. Premium subscribers recently got a lossless option that maxes out at 24-bit/44kHz—an offering that still lags behind some rivals’ highest-res tiers but is a significant step up for anyone using wired headphones or capable speakers.
Free offers persist, and among the other features you won’t find there are no offline downloads, ad breaks on playlists and no ability to queue albums or playlists — nor is the service continuing with uninterrupted start-to-finish playback of an album or playlist. The new single-song selection is a compromise in the war on intent-based listening, not Spotify’s big surrender to its on-demand model.
Why Spotify is doing this
On-demand song starts drive engagement. Allowing free users to pick a specific track might help boost how often someone visits the service and how long they spend there and add to ad impressions — metrics that are important for an ad-supported business. Spotify has emphasized the significance of its advertising business throughout its investor materials, writing that ad-supported listening “serves as a funnel to more expensive subscription services” and added that it is one of the company’s fastest-growing revenue lines.
Industry data supports the strategy. Credits Streaming is the gas in music’s engine of growth, according to the IFPI’s Global Music Report, and ad-supported tiers bring all but only subscription tiers earn more per user. Giving free listeners more control could lead to better retention and, in due course, convert some of them to Premium.
How this stacks up against rivals
The free versions of most major services remain restricted on mobile. On YouTube Music you can cast to other devices easily from the web, but on mobile it often shoves users into stations or mixes unless they subscribe for on-demand playback. Amazon Music (free) is primarily driven by playlists and stations, just as Pandora has offered temporary on-demand access with “Premium Access” via a video ad. Deezer offers a little more flexibility on desktop than it does on phones. Spotify’s move closes some of the distance in day-to-day use between free and premium — searching for a track you have in mind and hitting play — without removing incentives to upgrade.
What this means for artists and labels
Single-track on-demand plays can help buoy intent-driven streams — say, a new single or viral hit or catalog staple resurfacing on social media. Although ad-supported streams generally generate lower payouts than subscription plays, greater volumes and easier sharing can propel tracks further. MIDiA Research and label heads, among others, have long argued that friction at the point of discovery is one of the surest ways to increase both reach AND eventual conversions.
Bottom line
For Spotify to let free users choose a particular song that was already on the service is in some sense an acknowledgment of how people listen: they come with one track in mind.
The company is letting in just enough control to make the free tier feel modern and useful — but not giving away the full on-demand experience Premium users live for. For listeners, it’s an eminently welcome upgrade. For Spotify, it’s a bet that a little more freedom will lead to more engagement, better ads and eventually more paying subscribers.