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Spotify is reportedly making changes to its free subscription tier

Spotify is reportedly making changes to its free subscription tier

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More like the paid subscription service... but with ads

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify is planning to make changes to its free subscription tier that should make it more closely mimic its paid subscription service, according to Bloomberg.

The updates, according to Bloomberg’s sources, will make the service easier to use, especially for those accessing it on mobile devices. Mobile users with free plans will be able to access playlists more quickly and have greater control over how they listen to music on playlists. Currently, the free plan prevents you from selecting tracks within a playlist, you just have to listen to what is served up on shuffle. An announcement regarding these changes is expected within a couple weeks.

Spotify went public on April 3rd, and its services are available in 61 countries with an overall user base of 159 million that includes ad-supported free listeners and 70 million paying users as of January 2018. The company is predicting as many as 96 million paid subscribers and a 30 percent increase in revenue to $6.6 billion by year’s end. Spotify will likely continue to focus on its central revenue stream of user subscription growth, and making the free experience better to use is a key part of attracting new people to the service.