Cannot play any songs - says "You discovered a Premium feature!"

[majorspotty]

Brief description of the issue:

Using the FREE account I am not able to play any songs.  The lovely screen pops up every time when I try that says "You discovered a Premium feature!".  As far as I understand I should still be able to start a song on FREE account.  I've tried "Discover Weekly", local Chinese/Taiwanese, just about anything that's on my Home screen.

Background info:

I've been doing a few trips overseas lately.  I bought Spotify Premium for the last 4 months and I've decided to cancel it since I don't use it enough to warrant it at the moment.  Now I am on FREE Spotify and yes I am aware of the 14 days rule.  I have updated my country setting to be my current local country (Taiwan).  The problem started after I changed to FREE account.

What steps you’ve tried already:

Reinstall Spotify app

Change my original (sign up) country to my current country
Tried on a Samsung S6 with Spotify ver 6.5.0.1816 armV7 

Tried on a Vivo X6 Plus A with Spotify ver 6.5.0.1816 armV7
Type of Spotify account: FREE
The app version of Spotify you’re using:6.5.0.1816 armV7

[Joe]

Hi. Spotify Free  users on mobile phones can only play music using the shuffle button. To play specific songs, premium is required.

[majorspotty]

Thanks but that's the thing, I only use the shuffle button to play songs.
Sorry the title might have been a bit misleading

[majorspotty]

Wow now that I've encountered a problem and trying to look for Spotify support I am learning that Spotify DON'T even care to invest into support to help its user instead rely on the community to solve ITS problems?  Sure, it may work for the usual user errors but what about all the other cases where it is an actual Spotify problem?  Who is going to help then??

I've been a long time FREE user (no issue in the past) and also PREMIUM user from time to time. 

Spotify states

"On mobile, you get ad-supported, shuffle-only access on compatible devices."

My issue - shuffle access do not work for me now on mobile.  The "You discovered a premium feature" comes up every time I try.  Now what???

[Joe]

If you want support from Spotify, you can use the contact form or tweet @SpotifyCares. Community support is generally from other users.

[Jeralyventura]

Can't download

[user-removed]

I am also a free user facing the same situation and just travelled back from other country as well. And too, reinstall Spotify app on my iPhone, changed my country setting. Every time when I shuffle play, nothing happens just keep pop up this message.

Please give me me a hand if anyone solved this similar problem. Thank you so much.

[majorspotty · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If your Spotify location setting is also set to Taiwan then Spotify Free does not work - well that was true when I first made that post over a year ago. I found out later that you can only use Spotify Premium in Taiwan. That information was not posted anywhere that I could find. Their tech support told me in the end.

"Please note that Spotify Free is currently unavailable in Taiwan. That means, in order for you to turn Shuffle and enjoy all other features in the app, we'd recommend upgrading to Premium."

Hope that helps.

[Coto2]

I had the same problem  with my free account in Android phone but haven't traveled. I solved it clearing all data from the app. Hold on app icon, open App Info, then Storage, then clear data.

I hope it helps

[Egor3334456]

As I understand, this problem is related to the regions in which you registered your account, at least this problem disappeared on the phone when I changed the country