Skip to main content

No subscription, no problem. Free Spotify users can soon use Spotify Connect

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Swedish music streaming giant Spotify has long used its free, ad-supported tier as a way to eventually ensnare listeners in its more fully featured paid tier. But lately, it has been giving unpaid users better and better functionality.

Earlier this year, the company allowed unpaid mobile users to skip songs inside a series of curated playlists — upending years of exclusively radio-style playback on for mobile for those without premium subscriptions. Now, the company has announced that free users can expect even more improved functionality, in the form of Spotify Connect access.

The company’s multiroom audio system, which allows anyone on the same network as a connected speaker to stream their favorite tunes by simply selecting the speaker inside the Spotify app, was previously exclusive to paid users. This provides yet another incentive for those investigating music streaming services for the first time to check out Spotify first — something that is very important for the company, which has long relied on its tens of millions of unpaid users to eventually becoming paying ones.

It also might help give them a leg up on companies like Apple, whose Apple Music doesn’t offer an unpaid tier, but has overtaken Spotify as the most popular on-demand streaming service in the United States, thanks in large part to its strong hardware integrations with other Apple products.

“The release of our new eSDK will change the game for Spotify’s Free users who want to enjoy music on their connected speakers,” senior product director Michael Ericsson said in a press release. “We look forward to supporting our partners over the coming months as they update existing speakers and bring new products to market.”

Currently, Spotify has more than 104 million free users, with about 87 million paying subscribers. In order to grow that base, it will need to continue to focus on creating the best experiences possible for its viewers. So far, it seems like it is putting a lot of time and energy into hardware integrations that will benefit the most people possible — recently re-launching Spotify for Roku connected TV devices, and also announcing an upcoming app for Apple Watch.

No word on when exactly Spotify Connect will launch for free users, but we expect it won’t be long, given that it’s been on the paid side for years.

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
The Beats Pill is back, baby!
A pair of Beats Pill speakers.

In what's been one of the worst-kept secrets of the year -- mostly because subtly putting a product into the hands of some of the biggest stars on the planet is no way to keep a secret -- the Beats Pill has returned. Just a couple of years after Apple and Beats unceremoniously killed off the stylish Bluetooth speaker, a new one has arrived.

Available for preorder today in either black, red, or gold, the $150 speaker (and speakerphone, for that matter) rounds out a 2024 release cycle for beats that includes the Solo Buds and Solo 4 headphones, and comes nearly a year after the Beats Studio Pro.

Read more
Ifi’s latest DAC is the first to add lossless Bluetooth audio
Ifi Audio Zen Blue 3 DAC (front).

Ifi Audio's new Zen Blue 3 wireless digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will officially be available to buy for $299 on July 9. When it is, it will be the first device of its kind to support a wide variety of Bluetooth codecs, including Qualcomm's aptX Lossless, the only codec that claims to deliver bit-perfect CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.

Admittedly, there are very few devices on the market that can receive aptX Lossless (and fewer that can transmit it), so it's a good thing that the Zen Blue 3 also works with the more widely supported aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and LDHC/HWA codecs (all of which are hi-res audio-capable), plus the three most common codecs: AAC, SBC, and aptX.

Read more
The new Beats Pill might replace Sonos on my back porch
The 2024 Beats Pill and an aging Sonos Play:1.

If I were to build an outdoor stereo in 2024, I'd do it with a pair of portable Beats Pills instead of Sonos speakers. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

In 2017, after more than a decade in our home, my wife and I added a pool. With it came a covered deck, making what basically was a new outdoor room. Not uncommon at all in Florida, but new to us.

Read more