Time limit on account when there hasn't been one for over 4 years

[rabbitbomb]

I've had Spotify since the beginning, when it was invite only. I don't mind the ads, listening to Jonathan bable on about something, because I know that pays for the service. However, I've just noticed a limit on my account, added very recently. How can you serve enough ads to people listening for just 2.5 hours a week? Are you moving completely away from an ad based model? It was the one thing that separated you from services like Rhapsody, Zune and the like, and I was an early proponent of the service telling all my friends and colleagues about it. When the time limits originally came in, I was grandfathered onto a plan where I had ads served but no restrictions, unlike new users. Now you're limiting me like a new user?

Again, I reiterate, I don't mind ads, but not when I have a limit of 2.5 hours a week. That's no time at all to use the service, yet you still serve ads during this tiny listening window. Surely nobody would want to advertise to people who can only listen to the service for a total of 10 hours a month? Radio works because it's listened to during a commute, and is usually playing in work environments, a lot longer then 10 hours a month listening time.

You seem like you're forcing people to use your paid service plans, when you offer a highly reduced and basically non-functional free account to draw users in. Call it a free trial, not a free account, because it is now unusable. To think this service launched in my territory (UK) before the US, Singapore and the like and they still enjoy unlimited streaming with ads whilst my service has been butchered.

[Peter__]

Hey! Welcome to the community 🙂

Spotify free accounts which have been registered for 6 months or more (outside the US) are subject to extra restrictions:
- Maximum streaming time of 10 hours per month (allocated as a maximum of 2.5 hours per week, meaning you never need to wait more than 7 days to listen again!).

You can read more about free account restrictions in your country here. You can see how much time you have remaining when you have less than 60 minutes of playtime left in the top right of the desktop client. You mention advertising in those 2.5 hours a week, that might be the case, however from my small knowledge of advertising revenue I extremely doubt the adverts of Spotify free generate anywhere near enough revenue to cover the cost of the music which is being streamed. 

Unfortunately, it is all down to licensing. The free restrictions are required in order to keep Spotify free available in the long term. The US get unlimited listening as they have different licensing agreements (and laws). Spotify have always said they wish the Spotify free plan could be unlimited in time, but it is just not possible at the moment. However, other free restrictions have been recently removed, so maybe there is hope for the future!

Peter

[rabbitbomb]

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@Peter wrote:

Spotify free accounts which have been registered for 6 months or more (outside the US) are subject to extra restrictions:
- Maximum streaming time of 10 hours per month (allocated as a maximum of 2.5 hours per week, meaning you never need to wait more than 7 days to listen again!).

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Nice bit of copypasta there, I get to listen to 2 albums in full a week, which is completely pointless, as I listen to more then that in a day (as I assume most music listeners do). Why stiff legacy users in this way?

What is the point in serving ads then? Removing the 5 plays limit when you can only less then 50 songs a week is one hell of a change to the service.

We are the ones who spread your service out during beta. I can't sign up for a Premium trial to test what the streaming to mobile is like, and have enjoyed a fantastic service since. I know new users have these limitations; it's been this way since Spotify came out of beta/invite only, and I'm curious as to why after 4 years why was my plan (along with my friends who were users since the beginning as well) changed to a limited amount of listening time? You can't blame it on a licensing issue, as I've had unlimited listening up until very recently.

[Liam]

As far as I was aware, the limits for free users have always been in place...

[rabbitbomb]

Well they haven't, free users had unlimited listening, plus ads if they signed up during the invite-only phase of development.

[Peter__]

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@rabbitbomb wrote:

Well they haven't, free users had unlimited listening, plus ads if they signed up during the invite-only phase of development.

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I do remember that during the invite only stages, but to my knowledge the 10 hour limit has been enforced on all free accounts registered for more than 6 months across europe since early 2011. If you haven't been getting them then I guess you have just been extremely lucky. 

Peter