Spotify Free Now Lets Users Select and Stream Specific Songs

Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov

Following Spotify’s Q2 2025 advertising-revenue decrease – and free streaming’s half-year recorded-revenue slip in the U.S. – the platform has loosened some restrictions for ad-supported users.

Spotify announced and implemented the (perhaps unexpected) changes today. Currently “rolling out updates globally,” the service now enables ad-supported accounts to search for and stream individual tracks, according to the announcement.

Previously, the same accounts were limited to shuffle mode when listening via mobile devices. Unsurprisingly, then, early responses to the broader update appear mostly positive on social media.

On the “mostly” front: Non-paying Spotify users are, of course, happy with the pivot. But it’s a bit of a different story on the Premium side, where customers are already posing questions about the incentive to subscribe.

“Wait so what am I paying for then?” one such customer asked. “I don’t use ai playlists or anything like that?”

“is it just me or does everyone else suddenly have free spotify premium,” another observer reacted.

This sentiment is certainly worth keeping in mind moving forward – especially in light of Spotify’s ongoing price increases and feature additions.

The situation may effectively test how much value subscribers attach to Premium-exclusive features including AI playlists and lossless audio. Furthermore, the idea that Premium plans could begin functioning as superfan packages in practice doesn’t seem like a stretch.

In any event, at least for the time being, it’s safe to say that the DSP’s advertising-revenue ambitions outweigh any concerns about bleeding subs.

As noted, this comes as a surprise to some extent. On one hand, it was only last year that Sony Music floated the possibility of charging for ad-supported listening in established markets. Additionally, Spotify in 2024 experimented not with adding features to its free version, but with temporary restrictions on lyrics for ad-supported accounts.

Closer to the present, it’s hardly a secret that Spotify has a ways to go before realizing its goal of generating 20% of revenue from ads. Despite an aggressive advertising expansion, the category’s revenue fell 1% year over year during the second quarter, after which multiple advertising higher-ups exited the company.

Meanwhile, specifically in the U.S., the RIAA recently confirmed a YoY dip in “free streaming” recorded revenue for 2025’s opening half. As we noted, that marked the first such half-year decline in over a decade and seemingly ever.

Suffice to say that there would be a major problem indeed if Spotify’s ads revenue failed to jump with today’s shifts – another point to consider from a Q4-earnings perspective.

And though the near-term focus is apparently on maximizing results in the category, it remains to be seen whether restrictions will eventually hit ad-supported accounts. In Japan, for instance, non-mobile ad-supported listening is capped at 15 hours per month.