Spotify’s revamped free app gives access to on-demand playlists

Fresh from launching a bundle with Hulu just a couple of weeks ago, the most popular music streaming service provider in the world has decided to release a new and improved version of its free app, and this time around, it allows non-paying listeners to get access to on-demand tracks. Specifically, users of Spotify’s free app can now select and listen to tracks in any order from 15 of the service’s personalized discover playlists, like Release Radar or the Daily Mix (before, non-paying customers could only gain access to playlists on shuffle). On top of that, people will now receive suggested tracks based on user created playlists -- a process that Spotify refers to as assisted playlisting (more on this later). Lastly, the free app now features a redesigned home screen that puts more focus on accessing playlists.

For so long, Spotify has taken full advantage of its free tier in order to attract and welcome new paying subscribers. This business model has also allowed the company to remain the dominant brand when it comes to music streaming, even managing to ward off the incoming juggernaut that is Apple Music. By making its free listening offering simply better (access to 15 playlists should equate to access to more than 700 songs, or equivalent to about 40 hours of listening to previously on-demand tracks).

It should be mentioned that while the free tier has undergone some significant changes, Spotify has opted not to introduce changes to its paid Premium option. What makes the Premium tier essentially different from the free tier is that paying subscribers get to exercise full control of the music they want to listen to, and of course, enjoy the option of getting rid of all those pesky ads in between songs.

With regards to assisted playlisting, what happens is that Spotify will recommend similar or related tracks to the user as he is compiling his playlist. Listeners get to hear a snippet, and then are free to include additional songs as they like. It goes without saying that everybody wants to be their own disc jockey, as evidenced by the fact that on Spotify, there are over a couple of billion playlists created by customers.

According to a report recently released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) just this week, the worldwide music industry’s revenues actually improved 8.1 percent in 2017. Indeed, last year marks the third straight year in which the industry has posted growth, after suffering through a decade and a half of dropping sales figures. That 8.1 percent increase also happens to be the biggest growth the industry has registered since 99 years ago (yup, no kidding).

And as it turned out, music streaming had a big part in all of that growth. As indicated in the report, revenues from music streaming grew a jaw dropping 41.1 percent last year. And for the first time ever, music streaming became the biggest contributor of revenues, capturing a commanding 38 percent share of the entire earnings of the music industry. And quite obviously, this is driven by the surge in the number of paying subscribers last year, reaching 176 million by the end of 2017 with 64 million new additions (a growth of more than 50 percent).