As long as you're willing to put up with a few annoying ads every now and then, Spotify has made it totally free to listen to all your favorite music, on-demand. Well, unless you're a fan of Taylor Swift or Adele. (Sorry, friends.) They're just two top-name artists who refuse to stream their songs on the service because of what they say is paltry payment for their work.
A proposed new feature may bring them back to the app—but it might end up costing you money. The Wall Street Journal reports (opens in new tab) that Spotify is considering letting some artists put their albums on the streaming service, but only available to paying subscribers. Then, after the demand has faded a bit, the music would become available to everyone.
Coldplay reportedly asked for this treatment, but the plan fell through. Previously, Swift asked Spotify to wall off her album, 1989, to paid subscribers in the U.S. but keep it free overseas. Spotify said no, and Swift decided to stay off the service entirely, writing in an op-ed (opens in new tab) that "music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for."
Currently, there are more than 20 million premium subscribers, and plans usually cost $9.99 a month. The premium plan (opens in new tab) let you avoid ads, listen to whatever specific song you want, and download music to listen to offline whenever you want. It's unclear if their new "windowed" access plan will ever happen, and what the specific will be, but the company might be hoping that early access to Adele might be worth a few lattes a month.
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