Spotify’s free service is quite good if you’re okay with having few features and an ad-supported experience. Those who want a better experience can pay a monthly subscription fee for Spotify Premium. According to a new report, Spotify is thinking about bringing over some of its on-demand features to free users. Spotify is apparently going to call this Jump In which will enable free users on mobile to use on-demand features in select playlists.
Citing multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation, The Verge reports that Spotify will roll back shuffle-only mandate on the free plan and thus allow users on mobile to choose songs on-demand in certain playlists.
Free Spotify users currently do not have any on-demand features. They are left to the mercy of the shuffle algorithm, it’s the only thing that decides what they’re going to hear next in a playlist, they can’t select songs themselves.
Spotify could give this functionality to all free users but music labels that license their music to the streaming service have a say in this as well. The report mentions that Spotify is talking with all major labels about this and that the negotiations could force it to delay Jump In’s launch.
It’s mentioned in the report that Spotify is thinking about launching Jump In in the next few weeks. Spotify itself hasn’t said anything about this yet. It has not even commented on this report.