Spotify Listening Limitations to Start Soon

In just one week from now, music streaming service, Spotify will have been in the US for six months. Spotify launched in the US back on July 14th and opened its doors to music lovers with unlimited free access to streaming music (with the occasional ad). However, the music is about to stop or well be extremely limited for users unwilling to shell out the $4.99 per month for desktop access or $9.99 per month for mobile access via its app.

The new free limitations are as follows: 10 hours of streaming per month and you are only allowed to play individual tracks at most five times per month. What does this equate to song wise? Well, say the average song is 3 minutes that’s 20 songs per hour or roughly 200 songs per month that you will be able to listen to for free. As someone who loves to work with music in the background that can go pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, the six month deal is no longer in effect for users who sign-up today or in the future. It was a promotional vehicle to get people to sign-up during the US launch with the hopes that people would get hooked and start to pay up.

It’s definitely clear why Spotify hopes that people will opt to sign-up for the one or both of the paid plans because as we know the future of music streaming services is kind of bleak right now. What will users end up doing? Will they jump ship starting next week, pay up, or live with the limitations? I guess we will find out.

If you are a Spotify user, I would love to hear your thoughts and what you plan to do once the changes take place?