Spotify has enabled free streaming for Windows phones. Before the big change, users could only stream through the Spotify app with a monthly subscription, which featured ad-free listening for $9.99. Now, Spotify offers free streaming for Windows phone via the shuffling option. Android and iOS users have had the free subscription available since last year.
Just like iPhone and Android users, Windows phone users can use current playlists and shuffle tracks instead of listening to songs on an on-demand basis. Spotify can also shuffle the catalogs of artists and search for music based on mood or genre. You can drag and drop a song into an email or instant message. Additionally, you can link to a certain part of a song and send it to people. Lyrics to practically every song played are available as well.
Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corp, said, “We’re excited to see Spotify made available for free on Windows Phone. This puts a much-loved listening experience in the hands of Windows Phone fans across the world, and beautifully showcases both our platform and the Spotify service.”
Spotify is available in 57 markets across the globe. They recently announced that they have a paid subscriber base of 10 million users across the globe. Pandora seems to be Spotify’s fiercest competitor. The music service claims 70 million users. Although they don’t offer songs on-demand, their Music Genome Project decides the next song that’s played for you based on marks from trained musical analysts. The Project incorporates more than 450 characteristics to choose tracks related to the artist you choose to listen to in order to line up the next song.
