I’ve just downloaded Spotify, and am very much enjoying listening to some awe inspiring new prog-metal releases! But i’ve started wondering; the free version of Spotify seems to give me 95% of the functionallity of the paid for version, except i have to listen to an advert every hour-or-so, which is no more than a few seconds long (and normally only advertises the premium version of Spotify anyway).

So who is paying for it? Shirley it can’t be only the Premium subscribers subsidising everyone else?

There are 10 million of us paying customers, so that’s quite a fair income, however I imagine there is a huge load of investment capital in there as well.

I think I read a year or two back that it was losing lots of money, in that “it’ll come good in the end, watch us snowball” business model. No idea whether it’s got better yet. The much derided amount they pay recording artists helps keep the costs down a bit though I suppose.

They pay more to artists then most others do.

I am happy to pay a tenner a month for it. With the free version you can’t listen to the same song more than 5 times (or that certainly used to be the case). I download playlists to the phone/ipad for offline use, but as I have unlimited 3G on the mobile, it’s the only way I listen to music, in the car or house.

They pay more to artists then most others do.

I was mentioning it as a complaint that’s been bandied around (and there’s the argument that it’s not a race to the bottom in terms of how much is paid). Spotify works well for me as a shopping tool, as I’ll have a quick skim through an album I’m thinking of buying. So presuming that’s pretty common it could arguably be to the artists’ benefit to be on there regardless of what it pays.

I think the 5 track limit has been removed. I’m pretty sure that’s the case.

Happy (for me) to have it on low as background in the office, the ads aren’t too annoying..

I pay (started on a half price student offer) to allow me to use it on my phone, as cannot otherwise listen to it at work. I really enjoy the ability to have access to a huge range of music and regularly drive down music paths id never otherwise come across. I also share access with the GF as she has my old phone so left it logged in, you cant both listen at the same time but it works out ok 95% of the time. Initially she just listened to one set of songs but after a bit of coaching to use all the features she wont be without it now.

A few other websites could learn from how much advertising they make non-premium subscribers endure.

Best tenner I spend every month.

I think the 5 track limit has been removed. I’m pretty sure that’s the case.

I know the phone application is much more restrictive than the tablet version, so perhaps it’s a restriction on the phone version. What i’ve been doing is tethering my tablet to my phone’s 3g, therefore negating the difference.