Spotify locking basic features behind Premium subscription faces backlash

Here’s the crux of the article in video form:

Spotify has received a lot of backlash from users for locking several basic features behind a premium subscription.

Ever since the beginning of this year, the company has been experimenting with numerous features on the free tier.

For instance, back in January, we highlighted that Spotify users could not turn off the shuffle function causing the app to play tracks from different albums.

In addition to this, we recently noted that the company restricted access to the song ‘Lyrics’ by locking the function behind a paywall.

And by looking at the reports (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), it appears that Spotify’s experimentation does not stop here. As per the claims, users on the free tier can no longer repeat a song that is currently being played.

Additionally, one cannot go back to any previously played track and listen to it again. And to add to their frustration, they can now only skip up to six songs in a day.

Some people also allege that they are unable to manually slide the progress bar of the track being played. Due to this, they cannot enjoy their favorite part of a track or a verse that they missed.

Users are forced to view repetitive ads while streaming content from the platform. Furthermore, the inability to turn off the Smart Shuffle feature on the player and listen to songs in a desired order affects their experience negatively.

People believe that the company is trying to force them to join the premium membership so that it can become more profitable.

@Spotify recently added these restrictions where unless I buy their premium subscription I won’t be able to play songs in order / go back to prev song / repeat the current song. Not to mention the ads I’m getting after every 2 songs. I’m sick of it. In market for alternative…
Source

However, the opposite happened, and several began uninstalling the app and giving it negative ratings on the Google Play Store.

Surprisingly, those who have the premium membership are also unable to listen to the tracks from playlists in a specific order.

And the situation remains the same even after one logs out and back in or uninstalls and reinstalls the app. Understandably, they are now regretting their decision of having paid for the premium subscription.  

I have personal beef with whoever decided that the smart shuffle thing was a good idea on Spotify like bro im just trying to turn off shuffle i dont want the damn smart shuffle
Source

A few even contend that they have already moved to alternative services like Amazon Music or YouTube Music.

Those affected are now requesting Spotify to revert some of the recently introduced changes so that even free members can utilize the player’s basic functionalities.

They also say that they will leave the platform forever if the company decides not to reverse the changes.

Rest assured, we will keep tabs on the situation and update this piece with the latest developments.

Note: We also have a dedicated Spotify bugs, issues, and new features tracker, so be sure to check it out.

Featured image source: Spotify.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.