Spotify Goes Freemium On Tablets, Launches Free Shuffle Product On Smartphones

For the first time since launching, Spotify now offers free access to the its streaming music catalog on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

The announcement matches TechCrunch writer Josh Constine’s scoop last week, where he said Spotify would launch limited free mobile access with limits based around playlists at today’s event. The Wall Street Journal previously reported Spotify had negotiated some kind of free mobile tier with the major record labels.

Spotify’s new mobile access is be different depending on device. Tablets will have access to the same freemium experience users are used to on the desktop. Meanwhile, Spotify will offer a Shuffle service for Android and iOS smartphones.

Spotify Shuffle is a lot like Pandora, iTunes Radio, or other station-based streaming services, but Spotify’s Shuffle product gives you more control over the playlist.

In other words, if you choose to play Lady Gaga, you’ll get only Lady Gaga music instead of 20 percent Gaga and 80 percent Gaga-like music. There are also Songza-style playlists that are delivered up based on the time of the year and other circumstantial factors.

For smartphones, you can access all of your precompiled playlists, as well as use the Shuffle product. However, you can not perform unlimited search and listen queries.

All the new, free services are available starting today.

Originally, Spotify asked users to pay $4.99 for an ad-free web experience, and $9.99 to listen across multiple devices beyond the desk top. The top tier also came with offline access.

In the new model, Spotify will allow freemium access on tablets, but shockingly not on mobile. This likely has to do with the artists and record labels who are tough to negotiate with when it comes to free access to full tracks. This was a struggle for Spotify in the beginning when the company first introduced freemium on desktop.

The free products will still include ads, as all of Spotify’s free products do.

Out of 20 million total users, only six million of them are paying customers. But times have changed from when Spotify’s desktop-first business model was introduced.

No longer do people discover web products that translate to mobile, but rather they explore new content and services on their mobile devices and hope for an accompanying web app. Especially where music is concerned, the ability to try out Spotify on your phone when you’re already out in the world discovering new music is just the ticket to inspire folks to upgrade. Launching on tablets is the first step toward that.

Plus, free access on tablets widens the net for new, unpaid users in a world growing more and more competitive. Apple and Google have both entered the streaming music space, alongside existing competitors like Pandora, Deezer, Rdio and more are sure to follow.

Spotify also announced 20 new markets, growing the app from 35 markets to 55 markets. All of the new markets, mostly in South America, will have access to the newly announced mobile products.