back to article Freebie Spotify is back, also £5 no-ads option

Spotify closed its doors to new free listeners in the UK last August, except by invitation, and the waiting list - according to some readers - is months. Now it's introducing 20 hours of free listening for which no invitation is necessary. You'll hear ads, of course, on this package which is called Spotify Open. Spotify has …

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  1. Tom 15

    The waiting list is huge?

    I guess somebody should have asked me... I have tonnes of invites!

    1. B Parnell
      Happy

      @ TOM15 would you be willing to give one away?

      Would you be willing to give an invite away?

  2. 46Bit

    Untrue

    I very much suspect all you need to get free Spotify is stump up a tenner for a month's premium access. Once that expires I suspect you'd just be downgraded to ordinary free spotify, very much doubt you'll just get chucked off the service.

    1. \\\

      .Correct

      Correct. Also, if you make the second payment, you'll get 2 invites. I too have tons of invites, can't even get rid of them on the works intranet.

      Anybody else hate the new client with all it's horrible facebook integration? I haven't got a facebook account, and I open spotify to listen to music, not check up on my friends listening habits!

      1. Sean O'Connor 1

        Hate

        Yes, I hate it too! Can't see any new features I like. I'm too embarrassed by my musical tastes to want other people to know the stuff I listen to. Is there a way to turn all the new Facebook stuff off?

  3. SynnerCal
    FAIL

    They're getting there ... slowly

    Nice to see that they're continuing to "develop" the product - although at the moment the Unlimited option looks good value (to me at least) - sort of a "digital radio" substitute, (although not a replacement for the soon-to-be axed BBC 6Music).

    If they really want it to take off then I'd suggest that Spotify have a word with the teleco providers. Problem at the moment that most mobile internet access is set with low caps - 500MB/month being typical before you get into the very expensive out-of-band charge rates.

    So, take your £25/month contract and offer a bundle deal for £35 with Spotify client access being "free" (not included in the internet quota) the same way that Three give MSN or Twitter access for "free".

    Failing that - maybe get the telco providers to be a little more realistic - sure 500MB/month is great for email and a little IM'ing, but for anything else it's useless. Just think of the ability to "up-sell" folks from PAYG to contracts if you were to start offering something a bit more realistic - say 2GB/month.

    1. Carl Carter
      Happy

      re: They're getting there ... slowly

      I suppose that depends on your provider. It's an important factor to consider these days when choosing who to buy your smartphone from. I'm with o2 and since getting my replacement iPhone last June (unfortunate accident with a dippy friend and a golfclub) and I've burnt through 22.4Gb download mainly from Spotify (on high quality settings) and Last.fm (I don't tend to download much else on the phone itself).

      22.4Gb and no warnings/slowdowns/fair use policy smackage from O2. I'd say that was a pretty respectable service.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    So, how do I.....

    ....get to see what their track list contains? Can I only do this if I install their software and sign up for the 20 hours/month thing?

  5. Dave Murray

    Nice

    A fiver to get rid of the ads? I might actually start paying for it!

    Anyone know if the api features that were restricted to Premium before are now available on Unlimited?

  6. Professor Tinklepants

    Hmmmmm.....

    .....so if I'm understanding this right, the difference between Spotify and a service like, say, Last.fm is that with Spotify you can choose indvidual songs to play, rather than a genre etc.

    If that is correct, I'll take the free, ad-less Last.fm every time. It's been a brilliant way for me to find loads of new artists (and buy their albums) that I would have never have found otherwise. I wouldn't have found them unless I was entering a genre, rather than particular songs\bands.

    1. James Pickett (Jp)
      Unhappy

      Last.FM

      Pretty sure I read recently that Last.FM are pulling out of playing full length tracks :-(

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