Spotify Goes Completely Free for Mobile and Tablets - The UpStream

While Beats might be just looking to enter the music-streaming space, Spotify is looking to enhance its presence. The company that is actually trying to change how much streaming services get paid by the music labels is now adding to its offerings with an announcement this week that streaming has now been added as a free service to mobile devices and tablets.

Spotify, now available in 55 markets worldwide by launching an additional 20 new markets along with the announcement, will be giving users everywhere access to the entire catalog of music from any compatible smartphone or tablet for free. Here's what free-streaming on mobile devices with Spotify looks like:

• Your music: Listen to all the playlists you've created and playlists from the people you follow. Spotify lets you discover new music, save, shuffle and share.
• Your favourite artists: Want to listen to a certain artist? Just hit shuffle play, sit back and listen to their entire catalogue. Don't settle for something similar. Don't settle for just one track from the artist you want to hear every 20 minutes.
• Discover great new playlists: Going for a jog or to the gym? We've got the playlist to help you go the extra mile. We know you just want the perfect music for a specific moment in time - and we've got you covered. There's something for every mood, genre or moment.

Spotify said that the company understands more and more people are using their tablets instead of their desktops to steam music, so it was a natural next-step to take. CEO and Founder Daniel Ek said,

Today we're giving people the best free music experience in the history of the smartphone and the tablet. Whether you're going to the gym, or having a party with friends. Just sit back and let Spotify serve you great music for every moment of your life.

Unfortunately, Spotify's free music experience on the tablet side of things is only available on iOS and Android. This technically means only Windows 8 RT devices are currently out of the running for free music from Spotify, as the desktop app runs perfectly on Windows 8/8.1. The good news is that there is a rumor of a Windows 8 app from Spotify, so hopefully we'll see that sooner rather than later.