The decision to place some functions behind a paywall was made by the music streaming provider Spotify in an effort to boost the number of Indian Premium customers. Rewinding, skipping, and repeating of songs will no longer be available to Spotify free users.
A brief about without a premium subscription, Spotify users in India will no longer be able to rewind, scrub, and replay songs
The Swedish music streaming service will restrict users’ ability to change the songs in a playlist, according to a recent TechCrunch article. India is one of the top 5 nations for monthly active users, according to Spotify, but the bulk of users are still using the free, ad-supported tier.
The business claimed that these modifications are necessary since the Indian market has reached maturity and that it is moving toward a subscription model. The ‘Smart Shuffle’ is also coming to India thanks to the streaming service. The new tool, which was introduced earlier this year, makes music recommendations based on your tastes and the song or playlist you are currently listening to. But free users won’t be able to turn off the feature.
The idea of encouraging customers to upgrade from a free to a premium subscription is not unique to Spotify in India. Gaana, a well-known music streaming service funded by Tencent, abandoned its free tier and converted to a subscription-based business model last year.
Although Spotify has raised the cost of subscriptions in a number of nations, including the US, Canada, Australia, and Germany, the business doesn’t appear to have any intentions to raise the cost of its Premium membership. The platform reached the milestone of 50 million active monthly users earlier this year, with the majority of the company’s income coming from premium members.
