You May Need A Spotify Subscription To Listen To Some Artists

Spotify may soon be backpeddling on a stance its held for years, that allows free and paid Spotify users to listen to everything on the streaming service's database. The stance has caused industry strife in the past and caused both Taylor Swift and Adele to deny Spotify of their catalogues.

However, a report from the Wall Street Journal posits that Spotify may finally be creating stronger tiers within Spotify's user databases, preventing free users from accessing everything that paid users can.

The report says there is potential that Spotify may only release new albums to its 20 million subscribers, presumably withholding them from Spotify's 80 million or so freemium users for a period of time.

The Australian reports that the company will first test the new model out before rolling it out fully, with Spotify worried about how the "windowed" approach may affect subscriptions and usage. They are reportedly also working out which artist will be the first to test the change.

As Forbes writes, Spotify has kept the freemium model at the core of their business, boasting quite a high conversion rate from those who use Spotify for free and eventually subscribe to the service. Spotify's stance has been that if its free offering isn't enticing enough, users won't bother listening and hence won't subscribe to the service.

[UPDATE] 

Without commenting directly on the report, Spotify have told The Music: "We are 100 percent committed to our model."

Using the new blockbuster Coldplay album as an example, which was released last week on Tidal and Apple Music, a Spotify spokesman stated, "We explored a wide range of promotional options for the new Coldplay album and ultimately decided, together with management, that Coldplay and its fans would best be served with the full album on both free and premium this Friday."

The NY Times reports that Coldplay's A Head Full Of Dreams was in negotiations with the streaming service to have its availability split between free and paid users. However, it appears that Warner Music and the band have decided against the restriction.