Rumor Fact(ory): Freemium restrictions still under consideration at Spotify

According to a new report from Digital Music News, Spotify may be reconsidering its free tier approach. Sources have allegedly told the site that Spotify may begin adopting a windowed path, making some music releases only available to paid listeners or only opening it up to free listeners for a short amount of time. The company is reportedly considering several different options for what form that gated material might take. Sources told DMN that multiple of those options could see a rollout in early 2016.

This is the second time this year that DMN has run a story with inside sources claiming that Spotify would be putting limitations on its free tier. Daniel Ek is on the record saying that he never wants to remove the free option from the company, but Spotify has been facing heavy pressure from labels to do more to get paid subscribers. The company does have more than 20 million paying listeners, but the jury is still out on whether the current growth rate will be sufficient enough to keep labels happy when Spotify has to resign their contracts.