Spotify is cutting the amount of free music it allows users to listen to in half, from 20 hours to just 10, as the Swedish firm attempts to make its popular music streaming service profitable.
Free users will also be limited to playing a song five times before either having to buy the track, or sign up to Spotify’s subscription service. Previously listeners could play songs an unlimited amount of times.
Ken Park, a spokesman for Spotify, said: “Out chief priority is to keep the free service, which is what makes Spotify unique, and what you’re seeing here is a balance of priorities.
“We’ve shown that the model is doing extremely well, but as things stand we need to tweak the service to ensure everyone has access to legal music in the long-term.”
The European firm, which is in talks with record labels to launch a service in the US, currently lets users stream the ten million songs it has available for free – interspersed with advertising – under its basic Spotify Open service.
Its paid subscription packages offers more music, which is also available on mobile phones via its iPhone application.
New users will, however, continue to be able to enjoy the current level of 20 hours of free music each month for the first six months after they sign up for the free service.
The move is being seen as a drive to convert free users into paying subscribers for Spotify Premium or Spotify Unlimited, as the company tries to cover the costs of its music label licenses.
So far Spotify has inked US deals with Sony Music and EMI and is close to announcing a deal with Universal Music. It has yet to reach a deal with Warner Music.
