Why should Premium subscribers suffer for cheapskates

[1210297825]

Seems like every new album that comes along isn't going to Spotify because of their policy on free streaming.  I pay for my music subscription and have been a customer for years, why should I suffer for people who won't pay?  There's too much competition in this space to keep your best paying customers at a disadvantage for people who want everything for free.  Do Premium subscribers like me have to leave this service for you to make us a priority?  

[user-removed]

@1210297825

Hello:

I am so sorry you are unhappy with some content not available on the Spotify service. Now it is true it seems that the free ad supported users might be "leeching" off of the premium users but there is an advantage of having an ad supported tier. First it quickly brings in new users to the service, the reason competitor services are using certain artists and their hype about free users as a way to make it appear that free ad users are not paying, they are paying they have to watch and put up with ads, there are plenty of posts on the community about how annoying they are. Nothing is truly free, there is a revenue stream be it from the premium subscriptions and ad revenue. That premium subscriptions and ad revenue is what is used to pay the royalties out to the legally required parties when the music is available on the Spotify service.

You also have to remember music streaming has only being going strong only about 5 years now, before this music streaming was just chugging along and there was a big question as to it's future, but now with even TV shows and even movies are using the digital streaming route, there seems there is a future and a market place for music streaming. The premium users should be trying to show free users the advantages of going premium. The ability to download offline content on up to three devices at once with up to 9,999 tracks total spread across three devices, higher bit rates and higher quality sound music streaming, being able to play content in playlists non stop and in the order the user wishes without any restrictions, no more dealing with the annoyances of ads if one has one account and has children about and playing music, no more inappropriate ads at the wrong time. Dealing with ad companies and their targeting tactics is a nonstop game that many companies deal with, while trying to fund a service and provide that service to the most customers as possible, but having an free ad supported access quickly brings in users to the service, which should be checking out the benefits of having premium. I have been both sides, premium is nice to have even if some of the premium I have been using is premium codes from helping out on the community.

Do you have any great ideas on how to encourage free ad supported users to go premium? The higher the premium subscriber numbers, the easier it is for the Spotify content team to get those artists who have been holding out on the Spotify service, over whatever issues they think free ad supported users might or might not have access to. Free ad supported users are limited big time over premium users, many third party Spotify device apps require premium in order to access the Spotify service, the mobile apps under free ad support accounts are severely limited in what the user can do with the service under that account type.

So thoughts, ideas, what is a good game plan to get free ad supported users as premium subscribers?

[1210297825]

Your response explains why free users might matter to Spotify, but not to me as a Premium user.  Those free users who are only paying with their time, not their wallets like the rest of us, are the reason we aren't getting the latest music available.  All Spotify has to do is to limit access to new music in the "free" tier and the record labels would make the product available for Premium users at the same time they do Tidal, Apple, Google, Groove, etc.  

And streaming has been around for much more than 5 years, I was a Rhapsody customer back in 2006.  Spotify may have helped make it more popular, but it's not a pioneer.  As for encouraging free users to go premium, that's pretty easy.  Stop offering free.  If Spotify believes that their service has value then it makes sense to charge for it.  And I can't imagine that Spotify is still in the adoption phase getting new customers by the 10s of thousands even with the free tier.  There's too much competition and those people who want streaming probably already have it.  Now we'll start to see consolidation as the bigger companies gobble up the smaller ones (i.e. Pandora buying up what's left of Rdio).  

In any case, this is a choice that Spotify is making that only disadvantages those of us who actually pay for the service.  

[D_I_E_G_O]

"NEW ALBUM BY "X" AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY ON LAUNCH DAY ON SPOTIFY PREMIUM! UPGRADE NOW! (for free users, album will be available only after 90 days of its release)... Sounds about right to me.

[friendofkeys]

Indeed free-users are important to Spotify... Premium subscribers willing to pay currently are put at a disadvantage and get more content for the same price on Wimp, Tidal, Google etc. - all services w/o free subscriptions.

Spotify, please change this policy so (at least) your premium users can listen to new albums on release day!!!

[1210297825]

According to this post on The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9873118/spotify-keep-music-off-free-tier), Spotify was considering the option of releasing Cold Play's new album on release day to Premium subscribers but changed their mind.  Meanwhile, Groove Music is giving away 10 albums.  Seems like they have the right idea to entice free users.

If Spotify doesn't change their policy, on January 1st I'll have no choice but to protest with my wallet and switch services.  I invite all Premium users to do the same until our voices are heard.

[1210297825]

Okay then, I'm cancelling my subscription.  When Spotify starts to care more about the people paying for their service than they do the freeloaders listening for free maybe I'll come back.  Or maybe not.

I urge all of you who are tired of being taken advantage of to follow me and protest with your wallets.