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Spotify wants to limit the number of features its free ad-tier plan offers to users. The platform has sent out a pop-up alert to Spotify users in India this week, confirming the changes related to playing songs in an order, or playing the previous track and more.

Spotify assures that free users on the platform can continue listening to artists, albums and playlists they like, and make use of Spotify’s recommendation engine. It is likely that Spotify is gradually bringing down the benefits available to free users in markets like India.

The company is trying all the tricks in the book to push more people to pay for its premium service. In fact, recently, we had done a piece stating Spotify’s desperation to force people to pay to hear the same song on repeat. As for the new changes for Spotify free users, here’s what the platform is now locking for them from this week onwards:

It is evident that the developers have ensured that they force users to get a subscription for doing the bare minimum that you would expect from any music platform. And if it comes to paying, there are two sets of users: someone who already has paid for Spotify premium and the rest who think getting Apple Music or even YouTube Premium as a better deal.

There’s no denying that Spotify has been trying to make users pay up for new features but nothing has worked, at least in India. The company is even reportedly planning to launch a higher priced service with benefits like Hi-Fi audio in the near future.

If Spotify really wants to grow in India, it needs to consider more than just the ‘push comes to shove’ method and forcing people to spend on its features rather than just dish out a free service with no real substance or value.