5 reasons to switch from Spotify Premium to its new free tier
Freemium or Premium? The choice isn’t so easy.
Spotify announced a major upgrade to its mobile app ( go. macworld.com/frsp) at an event at the Gramercy Theater in New York City today. The service will no longer treat its free users as second-class citizens. Now, whether you’re one of Spotify’s 90 million free users or opt to pay $10 a month to unlock the full experience, your music will take center stage, with curated playlists, on-demand listening, and smarter playlist creation. It’s so good, in fact, some users might want to consider downgrading to the free tier from the
premium one. Here are five reasons why you might want to switch (and five reasons why you shouldn’t):
5 REASONS TO GO FREE
1. It’s way more personal When you sign up for the free plan inside the new Spotify app, you’ll be greeted with a redesigned on-boarding screen that asks you to select your favorite artists. That sets the machine learning algorithm in motion, and you’ll instantly be greeted with a playlist of songs you might enjoy. Then, as you listen, like, and hide songs, your invisible curator will become smarter and deliver more personal recommendations every day. This is the big one. Where Spotify’s free users previously had access to all the service’s playlists, they could only listen to them in shuffle mode. That’s changing with the new app. Spotify will now offer 15 playlists a day to its free users—including popular ones like the awesome Rap Caviar mix—with unrestricted listening, meaning you can play the same song 100 times in a row if you’d like. Some of these playlists will be updated daily, others weekly, but Spotify promises more than 750 personalized tracks will be available for on-demand streaming every day.
3. It’ll keep your playlists fresh
One of the Spotify app’s greatest strengths over its competitors has been easy playlist creation on its mobile app. That’s not changing with the new version—nor is the shuffle-only restrictions on the free tier— but there is one feature Spotify is bringing over from Premium that might help you make better mixes. As you curate your playlists, Spotify will continually suggest songs based on your musical tastes, the artists and genres you’ve picked, and