Spotify limits free music

by How It Works Team · 14/04/2011

Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon

Online music service Sportify is halving the amount of free music users can listen to in a move that has enraged its fanbase. Under the new restrictions free accounts – which are ad-supported – will be limited to 10 hours of music playback a month, half the time currently on offer. In addition, new users of the free service will be only able to listen to individual tracks a maximum of five times in the same time period. Ken Parks, Spotify’s chief content officer, speaking for the company on the switch said:

‘We’re a company whose ambition is to offer all the world’s music to everyone which means growing the business and our user base to many times its current size. Everything we do is designed to ensure our users continue to have access to an amazing free experience.’

However, after announcing the news on its website’s blog, stating that, ‘anyone who thinks they might reach these limits, we hope you’ll consider checking our our Unlimited and Premium services’, the fan backlash began, with the first response reading:

‘So long Spotify. It was nice knowing you. Guess I’ll go back to pirating music again then.’