Spotify

Spotify to offer 'free' mobile service to Android and iOS

Spotify is to extend its "free" ad-supported music service to mobile devices.

Smartphone users will be able to build playlists of songs and then hear them played back in a random order. Tablet users will have more control, letting them select specific tracks.

The Swedish firm also announced it was expanding to a further 20 countries, taking its total reach to 55.

Experts said it needed to make the moves to combat growing competition, However its founder, Daniel Ek, said bringing a free service to Android and iOS devices would tempt more people to eventually switch to the premium version where they could access higher-quality audio, no adverts and the ability to listen to songs offline.

• Until now Spotify has offered a free-to-use product only on PCs, and had restricted its mobile apps to paying subscribers.

• The firm is dropping the 10-hours-a-month cap it previously placed on long-term users of its free service.

• "Our very clear mission is getting more people to access and discover more great music," he told a press conference in New York.

I personally believe that this development and update to spotify's server will increase subscribers from mobile phone users rapidly as content will now be free but with the addition of advertisement in between. However, this is also beneficial for the company itself as advertisement will play a large part in terms of its financial revenue and thus spotify are not to face any risks once launching free ad supported music onto mobile phones.

Spotify allows people to subscribe to stream music which means that people do not have to download this music themselves. Furthermore, Spotify make their income through advertisements and not as much through subscription therefore they can afford to make the app free for users to use. Its finally in competition and is a threat to the music industry as it cuts out the costs for people to pay to download music. These days, people don't really have the time to download and put music onto their phone; especially with the iphone due to the fact that you have to sync it; therefore streaming is becoming more and more popular to people.