topic Re: Free version APP is just Unusable in Android

Free version APP is just Unusable

Spenner — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 09:11:46 GMT

Hi,

Having read the forums, I can't believe that I cannot listen to a specific song on my playlist on my Android phone. Shuffle Play doesn't even play the song I've selected! So I can either play a random song... which then plays another random song, or nothing at all. According to your adverts, "You can play your music using the free app" False advertising!! it should state: "We will play some of your music that you don't want to listen too!" Unless this is explained / or I have missed something, Spotify is going in the bin!

Regards,

Spenner.

Re: Free version APP is just Unusable

Daniel — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 09:37:14 GMT

Hi,

Firstly if you were to have features like being able to select a song to play then it would make the entire business model unsustainable. The reason there are restriction on free is that the revenue from the advertising goes to the artist and to pay for the service. There are restrictions as obviously it's a business and to entice the user to go premium there needs to be some features only available for premium use.

To be honest if you go back a year and a half you couldn't even listen to Spotify for free on a mobile. We can be thankful for this ability... In regards to the limitations and detail about what can & can't be done it's all briefly explained here: https://www.spotify.com/uk/free/

For more detail you can look at the support page here: https://support.spotify.com/uk/learn-more/guides/#!/article/spotify-free-on-your-mobile-phone

Re: Free version APP is just Unusable

Spenner — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 10:25:46 GMT

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for your swift reply! I understand the business model stuff, I'm a software engineer for a computer company who develops and sells software so yes, understood. However my gripe is that I can open spotify on the laptop and listen to a song of my choice. I get out my phone and I cannot. Surely the app should do what the software does?

Business model i.e. Premium allows downloads and listening offline and listening with out ads. But Spotify seems to have two models, one for software and one for Apps. If we did that we would not be popular...

Anyway, I appreciate your response. Thanks.

Regards,

Spenner.

Re: Free version APP is just Unusable

Daniel — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 10:41:20 GMT

Originally Spotify was only available on the desktop for free & mobile/tablet if a premium subscriber. Spotify noticed a trend in PC usage dropping & tablet usage going up as tablets seem to be becoming more & more the way people were using Spotify at home. As such they extended the free usage access originally reserved only for desktop users to be available on tablets and introduced the free version for mobile.

Please see the thread Subscription Comparison Chart for a comparison of the different subscription levels Spotify offer.

Re: Free version APP is just Unusable

adrian_vict — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 06:29:56 GMT

hi daniel,

**bleep** off with the business model**bleep**

sincerely,

adrian

Re: Free version APP is just Unusable

Garrethcampbell — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 18:13:21 GMT

So not playing anything the customer wants to hear AND playing adverts?!! So the business model is " make sure Spotify is as bad as humanly possible on mobile so no one buys the premium version " great plan 👍

Re: Free version APP is just Unusable

Superhawk148 — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 22:57:40 GMT

"if you were to have features like being able to select a song to play then it would make the entire business model unsustainable."

If having the most BASIC ability to PICK a song on your mobile device makes your whole business 'unsustainable', then maybe you need to realize theres not a problem with the free application, and should not make free as horrible as an experience, but instead a problem with premium itself, and other such things.

removing features from the free version just to try to bully people into paying you money to have a good experience to LISTENING TO MUSIC is not sustainable, and will only end with people hating you.

Maybe instead provide premium features that you did not TAKE OUT from free instead.