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A first look at Spotify’s redesigned free mobile experience
As rumored, Spotify today unveiled a redesigned app that's geared toward users of its free music-streaming service at an event in New York City. The new mobile experience is all about personalized on-demand listening, with 15 playlists that are curated by Spotify based on your listening habits. That includes sets like the Daily Mix, which feature songs you've "hearted" (aka liked) and Discover Weekly, which is designed to help you expand your music taste with artists and tracks you may not be too familiar with. The Release Radar playlist, meanwhile, will let you keep up with all the new music popping up on the service. Spotify says that the more songs you "heart" or "hide," the smarter its playlists will get and others will begin to populate as a result.
Spotify agrees to let artists keep new albums off its free tier
One of the biggest points of contention between music streaming giant Spotify and the record labels that provide it with songs is the service's free tier. Regardless of whether you pay for a subscription or not, Spotify users have access to the same music catalog. That is finally changing though: as reported in Music Business Worldwide, a new deal between Spotify and Universal Music Group will make some albums premium-only for a limited time. It's a reversal of a long-held position that Spotify wouldn't segment its catalog in this way, but it was likely necessary to continue offering all the music it has access to.
Spotify for iOS gets free to listen shuffle options
Since its debut, Spotify's free offerings have mostly been targeted toward desktop users, leaving nonpaying cellphone fans stuck at the bus station with nothing to listen to other than Pandora, iTunes Radio or any of the myriad of other streaming services. Today Spotify has released their previously announced free mobile streaming option for iOS users, and if you enjoy mix tapes of your favorite artists, it's wonderful news. Spotify's free streaming option allows you to listen to any artist or playlist that you want. However, it only plays in shuffle mode. Meaning if you want to listen to Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" on your iPhone at the bus stop, you'll have to go to the Boss's channel and spin the roulette wheel to see what comes up first. For newer artists with limited discographies, this isn't a big deal. Drake only has three albums; Bruce has 18, making for a slightly more intense "shuffling" experience. Still, as the popularity of services like Pandora and iTunes Radio have shown, many internet users are perfectly content just listening to well-crafted mixes of the music they like. There's good news though for that plucky user searching for the one song they really want to hear. The service still allows you to skip forward from song to song. Just keep pressing on and you'll be dancing in the dark in no time.
