Spotify Paywalls Basic Features As It Looks To Spruce Up Paid User Base

SUMMARY

Free users now will not be able to repeat songs, skip back to specific parts of songs, rearrange the streaming order, or disable Spotify’s ‘smart shuffle’

The development comes at a time when rivals, including Gaana and Resso, have largely moved to subscription-only services

India now ranks among Spotify’s top five countries in terms of user base and engagement

Audio streaming giant Spotify has moved many of its regular features behind the paywall and imposed a host of new restrictions for its free users in India. The move has likely been undertaken to expand its paid subscriber base in the country.

As per the latest changes, free users will not be able to repeat songs, skip back to specific parts of songs, rearrange the streaming order, or disable Spotify’s ‘smart shuffle’ setting. The traditional shuffle mode will now become a premium feature.

Recommendations are added to a user’s session automatically when the smart shuffle feature is on.

The streaming platform is using in-app messages to inform the users about the restrictions and the reasons behind them.

Spotify India said that restrictions have been introduced to make the ‘free experience more consistent across all markets’. Free users will still be able to pick and choose the songs they want to play, and there will be no restrictions on the number of hours they can stream, Moneycontrol reported.

The development comes at a time when rivals, including Gaana and Resso, have largely moved to subscription-only services. However, Spotify has not increased subscription prices in India so far, even though it has hiked prices in several other countries including the US, and the UK, among others.

Spotify has experienced significant growth since its foray into the country in 2019 and India now ranks among the audio streaming platform’s top five countries in terms of user base and engagement. However, India is still not one of Spotify’s highest-earning regions, despite above-average conversion rates to paid subscriptions in India.

Spotify offers plans ranging from INR 7 per day to INR 119 per month for individual accounts in India, one of the lowest globally. The company is counting on the burgeoning Indian digital economy, which has seen rapid addition of online users in the past few years, to grow its paid user base.

The Indian music streaming industry is projected to reach a size of $473.60 Mn in 2023 and expected to register a CAGR of 8.72% between 2023 and 2027 to become a $661.70 Mn market by 2027, as per a report by Statista.