Spotify is reportedly launching a free mobile music streaming service. The service, which the company is supposedly launching at an event in New York next Wednesday, will allow Spotify users to select certain tracks they’ll then be able to stream on their phones and other mobile devices. Users can put tracks in a playlist, which Spotify will shuffle and play back a limited number of times, throwing some ads in the mix. If a playlist is too short, Spotify will fill in the gaps with other songs.
The Wall Street Journal says the service will offer up options based on a user’s tastes and input, though what that actually means for song selection remains to be seen. The service will also be exclusively streaming, meaning that users won’t be able to access their playlists offline.
Currently, Spotify allows unpaid mobile users to stream random songs from a specific genre, but it doesn’t allow the selection of specific tracks. For that you have to upgrade to the premium service, whose users can save their Spotify music and listen to it whenever they damn well please.