Music streaming service Spotify is rolling out improvements to its free music tier, including the new ability to listen to any song you want, and this follows the company granting Premium users access to lossless streams.
The company outlined three new ways ad-supported users can now access the specific song they want to listen to without shuffling: Pick & Play to choose any song from the interface, including your library; Search & Play to use the app's search function; and Share & Play to listen to a Spotify song link shared by friends or artists.
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Free users can also listen to playlists or create their own and design custom artwork for them, as well as listen to podcasts.
Spotify Free is CNET's favorite free music streaming service, and the ability to listen to the song you want gives it an instant advantage over services such as Pandora, which only let you shuffle.
Read more: Spotify Review: Best Music Streaming Service
As expected, there are still limitations to the free account, but users can listen to more songs from an album without shuffling -- based on CNET's tests -- and the previous "six skips per hour" rule appears to no longer apply.
Conversely, Premium users ($12 a month) can now listen to lossless music -- at up to 24-bit/44kHz quality -- and have access to features such as the AI DJ, audiobooks and the new messaging feature.
Updated Sept. 15, 2025, 12.52pm: Added clarification about the previous six skip limitation.