The change, which rolls out globally today (September 15), marks a significant shift from the platform’s longstanding shuffle-only model for free users.
Spotify has added two other on-demand features for free users: Search & Play: Free users can search for individual songs and play them on-demand.
The streaming giant hopes that a more generous free tier will increase engagement, boost ad revenues, help retain free users, and ultimately convert those ad-supported users to Premium subscribers.
“With increased free engagement and increased free audience, as well as more time spent on platform for free users, and also more focused time spent for free users – because if you can go in and pick your songs and so on, it means that it’s a boon for our advertising business,” he said.
Today’s update marks the biggest adjustment to Spotify’s free tier in nearly six years.
A significant update to the on-demand playback controls in the free version of Spotify’s app was just announced.
Mobile ad-supported users can now “pick and play” particular tracks from any playlist or album track list with the first of three updates.
The modification, which goes into effect globally today (September 15), represents a substantial departure from the platform’s traditional shuffle-only model for free users.
Users of the free tier will still be automatically placed in shuffle mode within an album tracklist or playlist after today’s update, but now that the shuffle restriction has been removed, they can choose and play any other songs from the playlist whenever they want. However, queuing is still a Premium feature, and a user’s daily allotment of on-demand minutes is limited.
There are now two additional on-demand features available to free Spotify users.
Play and Search: Free users have the ability to look up specific songs and play them whenever they want.
Play & Share: Music that was previously only accessible on desktop or tablet devices can now be played instantly on mobile devices when friends or artists share it in a message.
A larger free tier, according to the streaming behemoth, should improve engagement, increase ad revenue, help retain free users, and eventually convert those ad-supported users to Premium subscribers.
The freemium improvements coincide with Spotify’s recent Premium upgrades, which include the addition of a playlist mixing tool and lossless audio for subscribers who have paid. However, these changes do not come as part of a higher-priced “super–premium” or “Music Pro” tier, as was implied in earlier reports this year.
Last month, Spotify also introduced a direct messaging function for both Free and Premium users within its app.
The implications of these free and premium updates for Spotify’s eagerly anticipated “Super Premium” service are called into question, as is the possibility that any of these tools will eventually be elevated to “Super Premium” benefits.
He went on to say, “But we have no news to share just yet about what those products would be,” in an exclusive interview with Music Business Worldwide.
Spotify, Gustav Gyllenhammar.
In the words of Gyllenhammar, Spotify’s freemium “Glow up” comes as the platform is increasingly competing for younger users with sites like YouTube and TikTok.
Gyllenhammar clarified that Gen Z user behavior, which demonstrated difficulties with retention with the current free mobile experience, was a contributing factor in the decision to grant free users more on-demand control.
He claimed that young users thought the previous Spotify free mobile experience was nearly broken. They attempted to tap on objects, but it was unsuccessful. Today’s youths really expect this to work, as evidenced by their media consumption models. “”.
“Obviously, we observed retention issues with an experience that is not meeting users’ needs,” he continued. “”.
“Young users thought that the previous Spotify free mobile experience was nearly broken.”. “.”.
Gyllenhammar Gustav, Spotify.
Specifically, the Search & Play function transforms the free user experience from passive consumption to active discovery.
Now, users can look up and play any particular song they hear through TikTok, word-of-mouth, etc., right away.
It’s possible that our friend Ed Sheeran will release a new song today. You may have heard of some of his previous songs. “You can look up the song’s name and play it,” Gyllenhammar said.
Spotify claims that the Share & Play feature was a user annoyance with the previous iteration of the free app.
A song shared with them through an artist’s social media accounts or a private messaging app (or Spotify’s new direct message service) could not be tapped and played instantly by mobile ad-supported users.
Spotify is eager to emphasize how that latter point is addressed in today’s update.
“Artists can rest assured that all Spotify users, whether they have Free or Premium accounts, will be able to listen,” the company said in a statement.
Although he declined to provide the precise number of daily on-demand minutes available to free users, Gyllenhammar acknowledged that there are still usage restrictions even though more on-demand access is being introduced.
“On-demand time is calculated as the time a user spends listening to music that has started playing due to an ‘on-demand’ action, either Pick & Play or Skipping,” a Spotify representative confirmed.
There is still a cap on on-demand skips, even though this update gives listeners more control on free, they continued. The only people who can play and skip music without any limitations are Spotify Premium subscribers. Users of the app were previously only allowed to skip for free six times per hour.
Spotify, whose premium subscriptions account for 90% of its revenue, is taking a calculated risk with this move.
Gyllenhammar underlined that engaging free users is essential for long-term growth, as 60% of premium subscribers begin on the free tier.
“We’re able to accelerate growth of our free tier, both from a number of users as well as engagement, by opening up and widening the experience on free,” he said.
Testing conducted in several emerging markets over the course of 18 months before the global roll-out demonstrated favorable effects on both premium conversion rates and free user retention, according to Gyllenhammar.
At the end of Q2, Spotify had 276 million paying users worldwide, an increase of +8 million net subscribers over the 268 million the company had counted at the end of the previous quarter (Q1 2025).
Combining paying and ad-supported users, Spotify’s total Monthly Active Users (MAUs) increased by 11% year over year to 696 million, an increase of +18 million MAUs over the 678 million MAUs recorded for the previous quarter (Q1 2025).
Additionally, Gyllenhammar emphasized the new freemium functionality’s potential advantages for the company’s advertising business.
The largest change to Spotify’s free tier in almost six years is the one that was made today.
The ability to choose individual tracks from up to 15 different playlists, including Discover Weekly, Rap Caviar, and Today’s Top Hits, was one of the additional on-demand features the company introduced for ad-supported users in 2018.
