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Spotify is now free on smartphone and tablet devices

Spotify is now free to use on smartphone and tablet devices, the company announced today.

Until today, Spotify gave millions the chance to stream their favourite music for free. However, those using the free model were not allowed to use Spotify on the move – the Spotify app itself is a free download, but to listen on a smartphone or tablet you’d have to sign up for a Premium account at £9.99 per month, otherwise you couldn’t log in.

Today Spotify has done away with all of that, allowing free users to download the app, login and listen on the move just as they do on a desktop or laptop. There are still ads of course, but it means that every user can now sync their playlists up with a smartphone or tablet.

Of course, there are other catches as otherwise every Premium user would cancel their subscription and Spotify would make no money. Free users cannot save playlists offline for listening without a data connection, and similarly they cannot specifically choose which song they listen to. Spotify Free on mobile will offer existing playlists, Radio stations and the ability to find an artist or album and let Spotify shuffle the tunes for you.

If you’d like to listen to an album all the way through in its entirety from start to finish or perhaps only listen to one particular song, Spotify says you’ll need to upgrade to premium. The idea is that Free users can listen to an artist or album of their choice, but the songs will be shuffled. Furthermore, Free users will only get six song skips each hour so you might end up having to wait to finally get to that one song you wanted to listen to.

In addition to going free on mobile (iOS and Android only at the moment), Spotify has also just launched in 20 new regions across South America and Central America. Oh, and Led Zeppelin has been added to the extensive library of music on offer.

So far it seems that Spotify Free on mobile is very limited, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. If you get fed up with your skips being limited and quality not being great, you can always shell out £9.99 a month for Premium.