{"id":239948,"date":"2025-09-15T13:50:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T12:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=239948"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:33:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:33:44","slug":"spotify-scraps-shuffle-restriction-for-users-of-free-tier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spotify-scraps-shuffle-restriction-for-users-of-free-tier\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotify scraps shuffle restriction for users of free tier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Spotify just announced a major upgrade to the<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"> on-demand playback controls available on the free version of its app.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\"><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">The first in a trio of updates allows mobile ad-supported users to &#8216;<strong>pick and play<\/strong>&#8216; specific tracks in <em>any<\/em> playlist, and on any album track list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">The change, which rolls out globally today (September 15), marks a significant shift from the platform&#8217;s longstanding <strong>shuffle-only<\/strong> model for free users.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Following today&#8217;s update, users of the free tier will still be automatically pushed into shuffle mode within an album tracklist or playlist, but with the shuffle restriction now lifted, <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">they can <em>manually<\/em> select and play any additional songs on demand from within that playlist. There is a limit on how many on-demand minutes a user has a day, however, and queuing remains a Premium feature.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Spotify has added two other on-demand features for free users:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"[&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc space-y-1.5 pl-7\">\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\"><strong>Search &amp; Play<\/strong>: Free users can search for individual songs and play them on-demand.<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\"><strong>Share &amp; Play<\/strong>: Tracks shared by friends in a message, or artists via social media, can be played on mobile immediately (previously only available on desktop or tablet).<\/li><\/ul>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">The streaming giant hopes that a more generous free tier will increase engagement, boost ad revenues, help retain free users, and ultimately convert those ad-supported users to Premium subscribers.<\/p>\n      <div class=\"mb-advert__incontent\">      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__tweeny hidden-xs hidden-ms hidden-sm\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-sizes=\"992 1200 1440\" data-name=\"628x90 Sponsor banner #5 (992+1200+1440)\" data-params=\"dfp_sponsor5_628\" id=\"dfp_sponsor5_628\"><\/div>      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__banner mb-advert__banner--inline hidden-xs hidden-sm hidden-md hidden-lg\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-sizes=\"480\" data-name=\"468x60 Sponsor banner #5 (480)\" data-params=\"dfp_sponsor5_468\" id=\"dfp_sponsor5_468\"><\/div>      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__mobile mb-advert__mobile--inline hidden-ms hidden-md hidden-lg\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-sizes=\"320 768\" data-name=\"300x50 Sponsor banner #5 (320+768)\" data-params=\"dfp_sponsor5_300\" id=\"dfp_sponsor5_300\"><\/div>      <\/div>      \n<p>The <em>freemium<\/em> enhancements arrive alongside Spotify&#8217;s recent <strong>Premium<\/strong> upgrades, including <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.spotify.com\/2025-08-19\/mix-your-favorite-playlists-seamlessly-by-adding-your-own-transitions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a playlist mixing tool <\/a>and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spotify-is-finally-launching-lossless-but-its-not-part-of-a-super-premium-tier\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">launch of lossless audio<\/a> for paid subscribers \u2013 but not as part of a rumored higher-priced &#8220;<strong>super<\/strong>&#8211;<strong>premium<\/strong>&#8221; or &#8220;<strong>Music<\/strong> <strong>Pro<\/strong>&#8221; tier as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spotify-to-launch-music-pro-service-with-superfan-perks-like-early-access-tickets-and-ai-remix-tool-for-up-to-5-99-more-per-month-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggested<\/a> in reports earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Companies &gt; Spotify [4,412 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/companies\/spotify\/\">Spotify<\/a> also launched a <a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/slide-into-spotifys-dms-platform-launches-in-app-messaging-to-boost-content-sharing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">direct message<\/a> feature inside its app for both <em>Free<\/em> and Premium users last month.<\/p>\n<p>These free and premium updates raise questions about what this all means for Spotify&#8217;s long-awaited &#8216;Super Premium&#8217; service and whether any of these tools could one day become &#8216;Super Premium&#8217; perks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;Together with our industry partners, we still have a job to do to come up with more interesting and exciting products that we could layer on top of the current subscription landscape,&#8221; said\u00a0<strong>Gustav Gyllenhammar<\/strong>, VP of Markets and Subscriptions at Spotify, commenting on the platform&#8217;s subscription tier roadmap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;But we have no news to share just now about what those products would be,&#8221; he added, speaking exclusively with <em>Music Business Worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Together with our industry partners, we still have a job to do to come up with more interesting and exciting products that we could layer on top of the current subscription landscape.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<strong>Gustav Gyllenhammar, Spotify\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The higher-priced subscription concept has been tested in China by <strong>Tencent Music Entertainment, <\/strong>whose Super VIP tier recently\u00a0<a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/tencent-music-now-has-15-million-super-vip-subscribers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">surpassed<\/a>\u00a0<strong>15 million<\/strong> subscribers. These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/tencent-music-now-has-15-million-super-vip-subscribers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SVIP users generate five times<\/a> the revenue of regular subscribers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Bloomberg<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"link-external\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-02-15\/spotify-weighs-6-premium-for-added-features-access-to-tickets?embedded-checkout=true\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>\u00a0in February that Spotify was considering charging up to\u00a0<strong>$5.99<\/strong>\u00a0more per month on top of a Premium subscription for access to a so-called \u2018<strong>Music Pro\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0tier, which would include\u00a0various \u2018<strong>superfan<\/strong>\u2018 perks.<\/p>\n<p>An individual Spotify Premium subscription is currently priced at\u00a0<strong>$11.99<\/strong>\u00a0in the US, following the most\u00a0<a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spotify-hikes-prices-for-premium-subscribers-in-the-us-again12345\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent price rise<\/a>\u00a0in June 2024. This would bring the combined cost of a Premium subscription plus the\u00a0<strong>Music Pro<\/strong>\u00a0add-on to around\u00a0<strong>$18 per month.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">      <div class=\"mb-advert__incontent\">      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__spu\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-name=\"300x250 Sponsor MPU #1\" data-params=\"dfp_spu1\" id=\"dfp_spu1\"><\/div>      <\/div>      <\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Spotify&#8217;s freemium &#8220;Glow up&#8221; (in Gyllenhammar&#8217;s words) comes as the platform faces intensified competition\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">from platforms like\u00a0<strong>YouTube<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>TikTok<\/strong> for younger audiences<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Gyllenhammar explained that the decision to give more on-demand control to free users was in part driven by Gen Z user behavior, which showed retention challenges with the existing free mobile experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;Young users felt like the old Spotify free experience on mobile was almost broken,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They tried to tap on things, and it didn&#8217;t work. The behavior that young users have in their media consumption models today \u2013 they really expect this to work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;Obviously we saw retention challenges with an experience that is not living up to users&#8217; needs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><figure class=\"mbw-articlepic mbw-articlepic--right\"><a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49.jpg\" data-lightbox=\"image-set\" data-title=\"\"><img  class=\"lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-80x71.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-80x71.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-160x142.jpg 160w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-320x285.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-418x372.jpg 418w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-648x576.jpg 648w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-15-at-12.51.49-836x743.jpg 836w\" data-sizes=\"auto\"><i class=\"fas fa-search-plus magnifying-glass-icon\"><\/i><\/a><\/figure><p>&#8220;Young users felt like the old Spotify free experience on mobile was almost broken.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gustav Gyllenhammar, Spotify<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">The <strong>Search &amp; Play<\/strong> feature in particular fundamentally changes the free user experience from passive consumption to active discovery.<\/p>\n<p>Users can now search for and instantly play any specific song they hear about via TikTok, word of mouth etc.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe our friend <strong>Ed Sheeran<\/strong> releases a new song today, and he has some new songs that you\u2019ve heard about. You can search for the song name, and you can play that song,&#8221; said Gyllenhammar.<\/p>\n<p>With the <strong>Share &amp; Play <\/strong>feature<strong>, <\/strong>Spotify seeks to address what it says was a user frustration with the previous version of the free app.<\/p>\n<p>Mobile ad-supported users weren&#8217;t able to tap and immediately play a track shared with them via a private messaging app (or Spotify&#8217;s new DM service), or through an artist&#8217;s social channels.<\/p>\n<p>Spotify is keen to highlight how today&#8217;s update addresses that latter point.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Artists who now share links on social can be reassured that everyone on Spotify, Free or Premium, will be able to listen,&#8221; the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">While more on-demand access is being introduced, Gyllenhammar confirmed there are still limitations on usage, though he declined to specify the exact number of daily on-demand minutes available to free users.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Spotify confirmed &#8220;on-demand time is calculated as the time a user spends listening to music that has started playing due to an &#8216;on-demand&#8217; action, either Pick &amp; Play or Skipping&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>They added: &#8220;Though this update provides more control to listeners on free, there is still a limit to on-demand skips. Only Spotify Premium users have complete control to play and skip music without restrictions.&#8221; (Skipping for free users of the app was previously limited to six an hour).<\/p>\n      <div class=\"mb-advert__incontent\">      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__spu\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-name=\"300x250 Sponsor MPU #2\" data-params=\"dfp_spu2\" id=\"dfp_spu2\"><\/div>      <\/div>      \n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\"><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">The move represents a carefully calculated risk for Spotify, whose premium subscriptions generate\u00a0<strong>90%<\/strong> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spotify-subscriber-base-grew-by-8m-to-276m-in-q2-company-posted-460m-operating-profit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the company&#8217;s revenue.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Gyllenhammar emphasized that<strong> 60%<\/strong> of premium subscribers start on the free tier, making free user engagement crucial for long-term growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;By opening up and widening the experience on free, we&#8217;re able to accelerate growth of our free tier, both from a number of users as well as engagement,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">According to Gyllenhammar, testing across multiple emerging markets over 18 months prior to the global roll-out showed positive impacts on both free user retention and premium conversion rates.<\/p>\n<p>Spotify\u2019s global Premium Subscriber base at the close of Q2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/spotify-subscriber-base-grew-by-8m-to-276m-in-q2-company-posted-460m-operating-profit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reached <strong>276 million<\/strong> paying users<\/a>, which was up by<span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>\u00a0+8 million<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>net subs on the<strong>\u00a0268 million<\/strong>\u00a0that the firm counted at the end of the prior quarter (Q1 2025).<\/p>\n<p>Spotify\u2019s total Monthly Active Users, which combine paying users and ad-supported users, grew\u00a0<strong>11%<\/strong>\u00a0year over year to\u00a0<strong>696 million,<\/strong>\u00a0up +<strong>18 million<\/strong>\u00a0MAUs from the<strong>\u00a0678 million<\/strong> reported for the prior quarter (Q1 2025).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<figure class=\"mbw-articlepic mbw-articlepic--center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq.png\" data-lightbox=\"image-set\" data-title=\"\"><img  class=\"lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-80x78.png\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-80x78.png 80w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-160x156.png 160w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-320x311.png 320w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-418x406.png 418w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-648x630.png 648w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-836x813.png 836w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/09\/spotify-maus-vs-subscribers-qoq-1296x1260.png 1296w\" data-sizes=\"auto\"><i class=\"fas fa-search-plus magnifying-glass-icon\"><\/i><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Gyllenhammar also highlighted the potential benefits of the new freemium functionality for the company&#8217;s ads business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;With increased free engagement and increased free audience, as well as more time spent on platform for free users, and also more focused time spent for free users &#8211; because if you can go in and pick your songs and so on, it means that it&#8217;s a boon for our advertising business,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">He added: &#8220;We can now have much higher-performing advertising units for our users. So we feel strongly that this should be something that can drive accelerated profitability and revenue generation on the free tier from advertisers. That&#8217;s another part of why this move is important for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spotify\u2019s Ad-Supported Revenue in Q2 2025 was\u00a0<strong>\u20ac453 million ($514m)<\/strong>, up\u00a0<span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>5% YoY<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>on a constant currency basis, reflecting growth across music and podcast advertising.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Today&#8217;s update marks the biggest adjustment to Spotify&#8217;s free tier in nearly six years.<\/p>\n<p>The company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/troy-carter-on-free-spotify-taking-on-radio-and-the-future-of-streaming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rolled out<\/a> more on-demand elements for ad-supported users in 2018, including the ability to select individual tracks in up to 15 different playlists such as Discover Weekly, Rap Caviar and Today\u2019s Top Hits.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">The &#8216;<strong>pick and play<\/strong>&#8216; addition announced today lets users of the ad-supported version of the app choose and play specific tracks in <em>any<\/em> playlist, and on any album track list.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ad-supported users can now &#8216;Pick and play&#8217; any songs on demand from within a playlist, bypassing the automatic shuffle mode for freemium. Queuing remains a premium feature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":239966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-239948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spotify"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239948"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240055,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239948\/revisions\/240055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}