As humans, we love free food, music, films, and anything that can be had without paying anything. If it means listening to an ad for “30 minutes of uninterrupted music” on Spotify, then be it!
The streaming service is available for free, but with ads, it also offers a premium subscription option to give users an ad-free experience apart from other benefits like offline music and more.
Now, to encourage more and more subscribers to pay for its premium subscription, Spotify has made some changes and restricted several key features for free account holders. How dare they!
According to a report by TechCrunch, free users of Spotify in India will no longer be able to play songs in a specific order, repeat songs, or tap back to their previous songs.
These very basic and essential features will now only be available to premium users.
The free account holders can still listen to their favorite artists, albums, and playlists and get song recommendations.
The company has said that since the Indian market had “matured”, it has decided to make changes to the free tier.
Spotify has offered all these features for free since its launch in India in 2019.
Looking at it over the last year, it seems Spotify has been struggling to make ends meet. In that light, the latest decision makes sense.
Earlier in June this year, Spotify announced plans to make some structural changes by revamping its Podcast division. The company then cut 200 job roles, impacting nearly 2 percent of Spotify’s global workforce.
Sahar Elhabashi, VP and head of Spotify’s podcast business said in a blog post that “news like this is never easy” and the company promises “the utmost empathy and respect” during the process. It added that the music streaming company “will support these individuals with generous severance packages, including extended healthcare coverage and immediate access to outplacement support.”
In January this year, the company fired 600 employees owing to “macroeconomic conditions.”
Spotify wasn’t the only company to lay off people this year. Tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Salesforce also announced mass layoffs.