You Can Finally Pick Songs on Spotify Free

You Can Finally Pick Songs on Spotify Free

You Can Finally Pick Songs on Spotify Free

Being a free Spotify user has always been frustrating. I don’t know how people do it. Ads interrupt your listening, you run out of the ability to skip songs too quickly, and the shuffle button feels like it has a personal grudge. 

For years, Spotify’s free tier has felt more like a trial demo than a real music app, with Premium users getting all the real perks. But after a wave of online backlash and some serious struggles with its ad business, Spotify is reaching back to the crowd it once sidelined. Free users are finally getting a proper upgrade, and they’re actually useful.

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What Changed for Free Users

The biggest shift is simple but massive: you can now pick and play any song you want on Spotify’s free tier. No more praying the shuffle gods land on the track in your head. Just search, tap, and listen. You get to choose a single song, but after that, it's back into shuffle mode, so playing an album straight through is still a Premium user feature as per TechCrunch.

That’s not all. Free users can now:

  • Jump straight into a song a friend shared on WhatsApp, Instagram, or X without waiting for it to pop up randomly.

  • Design custom playlist covers with colours, text, and graphics to match your vibe

  • Use daylist, a playlist that updates with songs that fit the time of day and your habits.

  • Access lyrics in real time and even share them with friends.

  • Enjoy personalised recommendations through Discover Weekly and Release Radar.

It’s a lot closer to the premium experience than ever before. Still, there’s a limit. Spotify confirmed to TechCrunch that free users will have a daily on-demand time limit. Once you hit that limit, you’ll go back to the usual restrictions like limited skips per hour. Premium users don’t face any of these caps, and they also receive perks such as ad-free listening, higher-quality audio, and offline downloads.

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What This Means for You (and Spotify)

For Spotify, this isn’t just about being generous. The company’s ad revenue has been underperforming, making up only 11% of its total revenue instead of the 20% target. Giving free users more features keeps them streaming longer, which means more ads and more money.

For listeners, though, this is a big win. In countries like ours, where many people stick to free tiers because of cost, these updates make Spotify far more usable. Competing apps like Audiomack and Boomplay already give Nigerians strong free options, so Spotify has no choice but to step up. The ‘pick and play’ change alone makes it easier to justify keeping the app on your phone instead of switching.

It also helps Spotify stay competitive globally. Apple Music and YouTube Music may dominate premium subscriptions, but if Spotify can keep free users hooked, it keeps the pipeline open for people to eventually upgrade.

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The internet didn’t hold back. Many users welcomed the update as a long-overdue win, praising Spotify for finally giving them more control. On the other hand, Premium subscribers were less impressed, with some questioning whether it was worth continuing to pay for the exclusive benefits. The overall mood online shows clear excitement from the free side, mixed with growing scepticism among those already paying.

This split reaction shows the tightrope Spotify is walking. Free users feel like they finally matter, while Premium users want reassurance that their money still buys exclusivity. It’s a delicate balance, but one that keeps the conversation lively, and that’s exactly what Spotify needs right now.

The bottom line is, Spotify free just got its biggest glow-up in years. You can now search, pick, and play songs on demand, customise your playlists, and actually enjoy more of what the app offers without paying a kobo. The restrictions are still there, but it’s a much better option than the nightmare free users have endured.

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