Spotify was rumored to launch free mobile streaming last week, and CEO Daniel Ek confirmed the news today at a special event in New York City.
Competing with Pandora and iTunes Radio, an update is rolling out now to the Android and iOS app.
Unlike the free version of Spotify on the desktop, users will not be able to listen to specific songs.
Instead, a new feature called “Shuffle Play” allows you to shuffle through songs either in a playlist or an artist’s discography.
Free mobile users can only skip up to six songs per hour, and according to Jeff Levick, Chief Sales, Marketing and International Growth Officer, Spotify will only play two minutes of audio ads per hour.
As far as how long the ads will be and how often they will play, the music streaming service is still ironing that out.
Previously, Led Zeppelin had kept its music off music streaming services, but users can finally start listening to the legendary rock band.
One issue with Spotify has been its availability in other countries, and it’s now available in the following 20 markets:
- Bolivia
- Bulgaria
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Malta
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Slovakia
- Uruguay
This brings its total to 55 markets, and Spotify currently has access to over 20 million songs.
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