Spotify has been well known for being one of the top music streaming platforms, with the company having recently forayed into audio discussions like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces with its Spotify Greenroom. Today, it was pointed out by the Verge that Spotify was trialling a new ad-based tier that brings with it Premium benefits for a lower than normal price. This plan, which costs $0.99 on a monthly basis is available at a fraction of the cost of the big Premium plan. What sets it apart is that with this lower price, users get the core features of the Premium plan such as unlimited track skips on an hour, in comparison to six on the free tier, with the ability to play any track that they like.
Spotify Plus Might Not Solve Your Biggest Complain
Do note that it is unclear as to why Plus packs with it the Plus-exclusive features like higher bit-rate playback or song downloads so as to play media on offline mediums, but, at the price, it seems that Plus is a good cheap method of using Spotify without having to pay 10x more for certain key benefits. Unfortunately, there is one big caveat, which also results in the price cut, this specific issue is the reliance on advertising. Some users might be willing to fork out that $9 premium for proper usage, but this payment method seems odd since most users seem to be annoyed by the plethora of ads on the platform. This does seem like a smart move by the platform, as it can provide certain premium features for a fraction of the main cost, but it also seems to be the epitome of compromise. A statement by the Verge confirms that Spotify Plus is available to a limited number of users, but there is no official confirmation of the rollout and the method that will be used. The timing for this is quite interesting, as YouTube recently showcased its intention to get people on the paid plans by trialling a new tier that can remove advertisements for viewers, whilst other key YouTube Premium services such as offline downloads, background content consumption and YouTube Music support have been exempted from the plan. The report mentioned that users in countries such as Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden were seeing the Premium Lite tier whilst trying to cancel their YouTube Premium subscriptions.
