Spotify Cuts Free Hours in Half; Gains 500,000 Paid Users

Cutting the hours of free music has apparently resulted in a huge surge of paying subscribers for Spotify

Spotify ruffled quite a few feathers when it reduced its 'free' option to 10 hours of free music per month, as opposed to 20 hours, back in April. However, it seems to have worked out quite well for the music streaming service, as it's gained half a million new users since. At least, that's what Music Ally says is in the leaked document it received.

Music Ally reports that while Spotify lost 1.6 million free users between the months of March and June of this year, it gained 520,000 paying subscribers.

"In March, the company had 4.73 million free users and 1.02 million paying subscribers," Music Ally said in its post. "Then the restrictions were announced in mid-April and implemented on 1 May. By June, the leaked report reveals that Spotify had only 3.13 million free users, but 1.54 million paying subscribers."

The site goes on to reveal that in June, 1.23 million of Spotify’s subscribers were on its €9.99 web+mobile Premium tier, while just under 303,000 were on its €4.99 web-only Unlimited tier.

Spotify declined to comment on the report, but, if it's true, we can't imagine the company is unhappy with this result. While it's always maintained that the free service is a defining feature for Spotify, the company also likes to push the paid premium service, which offers ad-free music, the ability to access the service from your mobile devices, unlimited streaming of music, higher bitrate streams, and offline access to music.

Do you think Spotify's new 10-hour limit is enough? Let us know in the comments below!

Check out Music Ally's in-depth report into Spotify's numbers here.