Spotify has formally announced the introduction of on-demand streaming for on mobile for free users. The feature, which was leaked last week, allows users to select and play specific songs while on mobile; instead of being locked into the shuffle play option.
Free users will have 15 playlists available with the on-demand streaming feature, although none of these can be customised. Instead, they will feature Spotify’s own list of curated playlists – and also the Daily Mixes, Discover Weekly, and Release Radar. We’re told that the other playlists will change depending on the music tastes of the listener. Allowing people to slowly evolve their listening habits.
To this end, playlists without the on-demand streaming will have a blue shuffle icon. Something that was already leaked ahead of time.
Also being introduced is a new Data Saver option for those with limited data caps. This will reduce the fidelity of the audio in order to save on data use. However, Spotify won’t say what the audio quality will be like with the option turned on; only that it will save up to 75% on data usage.
The introduction of these freemium features is part of Spotify’s efforts to convert more free users to paid ones. Ideally, giving them a bigger taste of a premium account will be the push that some need to begin paying for a monthly subscription.
Spotify’s on-demand playlists is set to begin rolling out to the Android app this week, the the update set to reach iOS over the next two weeks.
