The rivalry between music streaming platforms; Spotify and Apple Music appears to have thickened as the former rolled out a three-month free trial for users.
According to Spotify, it’s a permanent switch from the previous one-month free trial to a three-month.
This brings the streaming music service in line with the three-month free trial offered by Apple Music.The company made the announcement in a post touting the benefits of premium membership.
The music and podcasts you love on the world’s most popular audio-streaming subscription service. On any device. Anytime. Anywhere.
If that sounds good, this is the perfect time to join the 100 million-plus people who’ve subscribed to Spotify Premium. Beginning August 22, eligible users will receive the first three months on us for free when they sign up for any Spotify Premium plan.** You’ll unlock a world of on-demand access to millions of hours of audio content — no matter when you sign up, winter, spring, summer, or fall […]
The offer launches today for individual and student plans. It will roll out across Duo and Family in the coming months.
However, it’s worthy of note that the three-month free trial is only open to those who have never used a free trial before.
It was cited by Variety that Spotify wanted to give customers time to experience the benefits for themselves.
The company’s stated motivation for this move is to “give people the time that they need to fall in love with Premium’s seamless listening experience and on-demand access.” As Spotify chief premium business officer Alex Norström said of the extension, “Music and podcasts play an important role in people’s lives, so we wanted to give users the first three months for free to fully enjoy everything that Spotify Premium has to offer. We know it takes time to fully experience all of the features available with Premium, so we’re giving people the time that they need to fall in love with Premium’s seamless listening experience and on-demand access to more than 50 million tracks, billions of playlists, and 450,000 podcast titles for free.”
Apple Music has offered a three-month trial right from its launch back in 2015. The company did, however, run into trouble when it initially said artists and labels would earn no royalties during this period, doing a rapid U-turn after Taylor Swift called out the company on the decision.
The Spotify three-month free trial is the second time this week that the company has followed Apple Music’s example: On Monday, Spotify announced that it would offer parental controls for explicit lyrics on family accounts.
Eminem’s Publisher Slams Spotify With Lawsuit For Illegal Streaming
In other Spotify news, the Hollywood Reporter says that Eminem’s label has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that Spotify streams 243 of the rapper’s songs without a license. The suit seeks all of Spotify’s profits — which might be rather tricky, given the company’s financial position … The suit specifies $36.45 million as an alternative.
