Streaming services are adopting cheaper subscription plans in an effort to convert free users into paying customers. The world’s largest music streaming service, Spotify, is testing a $0.99 monthly plan that keeps the ads but gives you unlimited skips per hour and lets you choose specific songs in an album or playlist to play. Spotify, which confirmed the test to The Verge, hopes it will convince you to put up with the ads in exchange for more control over your listening experience.
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Currently, free users can only skip six tracks per hour and have to randomly listen to songs across albums and playlists. This is of course not great if you don’t like listening to Justin Bieber or if you just want to keep that new Billie Eilish. Despite these incentives, asking people to pay for an ad-supported service, even if it’s just $0.99 a month, is still a big deal. Especially when they’re used to using the service for free.
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The risk is that it could impact Spotify's existing core user base, which makes up 165 million of its 365 million subscribers. The goal here is clearly to convert the remaining 200 million users into paying members. Perhaps the low price of $0.99 will ease that transition. We'll know if the gamble has paid off if Spotify expands the plan to more users.
Information source: engadget.com
