Spotify Is Considering 99-Cent Plan, But There’s A Big Catch

Spotify is testing a new subscription that costs just $0.99, offering unlimited and on-demand streaming for 90-percent less than its Spotify Premium Individual plan. As it stands today, there are four tiers to Spotify Premium. The Individual plan mentioned above costs $9.99/month and offers ad-free streaming, on-demand playback of any song, unlimited skips, and offline listening. The Duo plan goes up to $12.99/month for two accounts with those same features, while the Family one costs $15.99/month for six accounts. Spotify Premium also offers an incredible Student plan — giving college students access to Spotify Premium,  Hulu, and Showtime for just $4.99/month.

Additionally, Spotify allows anyone to use its service for free — though it comes with a lot of restrictions. Free users can only skip six songs per hour and pick individual songs for on-demand listening from 15 playlists (such as Daily Mixes and Discovery Weekly). Any other playlist or album can only be listened to in shuffle mode, resulting in a considerably worse experience. Having the option to listen for free is nice, but it’s clear Spotify wants people to get fed up with those restrictions and switch to a paid plan.

As reported by The Verge, it appears Spotify is testing a brand-new subscription that would dramatically lower the price of admission. Spotify is now trialing a new tier called ‘Spotify Plus’ that grants subscribers unlimited skips and on-demand listening to any song, album, or playlist — all for just $0.99 per month. That’s substantially cheaper than any other Spotify Premium plan currently available, but it does come with a huge catch. At this $0.99/month tier, Spotify Plus users would still be required to listen to advertisements in between songs. There’s also no mention of Spotify Plus users being able to download songs for offline listening, suggesting that’s also not included at this price.

Don’t Expect To Sign Up For Spotify Plus Any Time Soon

Even with those restrictions in mind, Spotify Plus could still be a great option for a lot of people. Just under $1 per month is hardly anything, and at that price, Spotify Plus removes two of the biggest annoyances of the free Spotify experience. Ads are annoying, sure, but having free range to listen to anything with unlimited skips is nothing to scoff at.

Spotify confirmed that this plan is being tested by the company with “a limited number of our users,” but there’s no guarantee it’ll become widely available for everyone. In a statement sent to The Verge, Spotify says, “Some tests end up paving the way for new offerings or enhancements while others may only provide learnings. We don’t have any additional information to share at this time.” It’s also reported that Spotify Plus is being trialed at multiple price points, meaning it might cost more (or less) than $0.99/month for some people. More options are always a good thing, so here’s to hoping Spotify’s test goes well enough that this plan eventually rolls out to everyone.

Source: The Verge

About The Author

Joe Maring
(1522 Articles Published)

Joe has been actively writing and talking about consumer tech since 2012. His biggest passion lies with smartphones, but he’s happy to talk your ear off about just about anything with a CPU. He lives in Kalamazoo, MI with his wife, two cats, and pit bull/boxer mix.

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