Spotify changes

[Hutch]

I'm sure a lot of you use spotify. As a student it's quite handy being able to access tracks and whole albums for free using their free service, with the adverts being a minor annoyance. However they've announced changes to their free service this week. Some people think more people will leave and continue to pirate music instead, and others think it's fair enough as the revenue from advertising to the free users can't support the company in the long run.
Here are the changes posted on their website:


"New Spotify users will be able to enjoy our unrivalled free service as it is today for the first 6 months.
As of May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1st 2010 will be able to play each track for free up to a total of 5 times. Users who signed up after the beginning of November will see these changes applied 6 months after the time they set up their Spotify account.
Additionally, total listening time for free users will be limited to 10 hours per month after the first 6 months. That’s equivalent to around 200 tracks or 20 albums."


I personally think that the premium service is well worth the money, despite not wanting to pay any more money than I need to, so I'll stick with the free service as long as I can. 10 hours is a bit limiting though. However they seem to be targetting the heavier users rather than light users who search for a few tracks. I do tend to buy albums as theres a lot more flexibility with what I can do with them/higher quality.

Here's the BBC article.

What do you guys think?

(This is the first thread I think I've posted since I was unbanned lol)