

Spotify's mobile app finally goes free - brt
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57615239-94/spotifys-mobile-app-finally-goes-free/

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valevk
Google Music is pushing into more countries. The only logical consequence.

I switched from Spotify to Google, because:

1) Found a few albums, that disappeared from Spotify a few months ago.

2) 7,99 € vs. 9,99 €

3) Google Music allowed me to shuffle all of my music

4) The app is way better. I can always stop the player from the notification
bar (on spotify that was a sometimes pain in the ass )

5) When listening to music on Spotify and someone calls, it wasn't possible to
adjust the volume, resulting in your ears getting voice-bombed by the caller

~~~
darrenkopp
I just wish google music had a desktop client (or support in chrome) to hook
into operating system keyboard shortcuts like play, pause, forward, next, etc.

~~~
soundandfeury
I've been using sway.fm chrome extension and it seems pretty decent:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-
mus...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-music-
medi/icckhjgjjompfgoiidainoapgjepncej)

~~~
cheshire137
I just found Sway.fm for Chrome last night, and it's been awesome for playing
SoundCloud.

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dchuk
_The smartphone app, however, doesn 't work exactly like the PC service. Users
can access their playlists and music albums, but they have to scroll through
their lists randomly using a "Shuffle Play" button. Users can't pick the exact
song they want to play right away, and will have to shuffle through their
playlists._

I pay for Spotify specifically for the mobile app (the ads didn't bother me)
and I do not want these changes. I can't tell from the article, but will this
pricing change have any effect on the way I currently use the app? I want
direct access to songs on my phone, not a Pandora-like system...otherwise I
would just pay less and switch back to Pandora...

~~~
roguelynn
Spotify employee here - it's _only_ for free tier. Your service doesn't
change.

~~~
ashray
Hey I just switched over from rDio to spotify. The reasons are that spotify
lets you sync different songs/playlists to different devices and rDio does
not. Spotify has a better library than rDio.

However, why can I not browse/sync my 'Collection' on spotify's ios apps? Is
this feature on the cards ? (I guess having a 'Collection' just on the desktop
app makes little sense...) Would love it if you could answer!! Thanks for a
great service!

~~~
roguelynn
Hey ashray - pretty much what publicfig said. If you'd like, sign up for the
beta testing of "Collection" across multiple platforms:
[http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-
Announcements/Collec...](http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-
Announcements/Collection-beta-testers-wanted/td-p/562686)

~~~
publicfig
And here's a link to follow for any information on the beta testing program:

[http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-
Announcements/Beta-t...](http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-
Announcements/Beta-testing-Spotify/m-p/565906)

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tonylemesmer
Except that what I think of as "Spotify" is the ability to pick a tune from
their enormous library and play it with some ads thrown in.

What is actually free, today is the ability to play random songs. Basically no
different to other streaming services. Massively caveated mobile experience
which is not immediately obvious in the announcement.

I installed the Android mobile app. It took me about 10 minutes to work this
out at which point I uninstalled it again.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

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RealGeek
_On mobile, you can listen to artists, albums and playlists in shuffle mode.
Or choose a ready-made playlist to suit your mood._

Even though I have a Spotify premium subscription, this is what I do 99% of
the time. Thanks, I will be cancelling my premium subscription today.

~~~
Flimm
You're not annoyed by the ads?

~~~
RealGeek
Not much, because I primarily use Spotify in car. I am sure the ads would be
annoying if I am listening with earphones.

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untog
Surely there's one significantly bigger catch - only paying members can save
playlists offline.

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spurgu
This seems like a surprisingly dumb move. Making a virtual Ipod Shuffle will
only serve to annoy users. Which on the other hand is their business model,
but I think users will rather uninstall than upgrade to premium because of
this.

~~~
deathcakes
Agreed - I say this as a premium subscriber and have vast experience of the
awfulness that is their paid for app, be it on android or ios.

~~~
gizzlon
Really? I'm quite happy with it.. I've been a subscriber for years, definitely
worth the $10 if you listen to a lot of music.

For me it's more like $14, but everything is more expensive in Scandinavia :(

~~~
cheshire137
I switched from Spotify to Rdio specifically because of the crappiness of the
iOS Spotify app. This was in the past couple of months, too. I wrote about it,
if you want more details: [http://www.3till7.net/2013/10/07/why-i-switched-
from-spotify...](http://www.3till7.net/2013/10/07/why-i-switched-from-spotify-
to-rdio/)

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yugolarp
I like Spotify, but the radio feature leaves something to be desired. My buddy
recently released an an android app called "SSradio for Spotify"
([http://www.ssradio.me](http://www.ssradio.me)). It uses libspotify to re-
create SiriusXM like channels over Spotify.

Libspotify was restricted to premium subscribers only (probably still is). But
his app was the reason I'm sticking with Spotify. Its like having a sub to
Spotify and Sirius.

Best part, libspotify restricts people from displaying ads or charging
money..so its free :)

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plg
Spotify is currently not available in your country.

(canada)

boo

~~~
shawnc
Rdio, in my mind, is far superior in a lot of ways anyway. I had a friend
paying for a Spotify for me a few years ago, and switched to Rdio because I
liked it better (and not because it was available in Canada too).

~~~
cbhl
Unfortunately, Rdio's Canada library is different (and from what I can tell,
smaller) than the US one.

~~~
shawnc
True, tho I haven't, myself, been able to reach a point where it bothers me.
So far, my biggest annoyance was The Neverending Story soundtrack became
unavailable (my daughter loves it).

And I have very broad taste in music.

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jjdro
No selecting individual tracks? I'll show those jerks at Spotify with my ten
thousand single song playlists. Thanks for adding search filtering on mobile
too.

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dom96
I just installed the spotify app on my phone (it's pretty big by the way
~20mb, I wonder why that is) and this latest change doesn't seem to be in
effect for me. Is it not rolled out in the UK yet? Personally what I would
like to see is the ability for Unlimited users to use the mobile app.

~~~
cbhl
I wouldn't be surprised if it's US-only due to music licensing agreements.
(Getting rights in different countries often requires negotiating with
different labels...)

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sorahn
The only feature I want is to be able to queue specific songs and then have it
resume playing a radio station.

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jscheel
The expectation of spotify, mobile or desktop, is that I can select the songs
I want to listen to. This feels like an unexpected behavior to me. That said,
I'm sure they have tested the crap out of this to make sure they aren't going
to leave a bad taste in users' mouths.

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cheshire137
Led Zeppelin exclusive to Spotify? Then I won't listen to Led Zeppelin. I hate
this exclusive access shit. It doesn't make me pay for the service that has
the rights, it makes me avoid the product altogether. Rdio is doing just fine
for me.

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andrewflnr
Is it the rights holders who specify the weird distinction between "tablets"
and "smartphones"? Otherwise, I can't understand that.

