Spotify uses several different tools on its platform to encourage music sharing, and you don’t need to buy Premium to access any of them. Of course, people still get together to listen to music nowadays, but we no longer have to be in the same physical space to appreciate some of the social benefits of music.

Music has always been a social art form, but things have changed quite a bit since the days my dad would buy the latest Neil Young record on vinyl and sit around the turntable with his friends. Of course, for anyone with sensory processing sensitivities, this marketing tactic can be more than just irritating and can cause genuine distress. Many of them feature the most irritating noises you could imagine, such as traffic horns overlaid with a voice saying things like, “Is this annoying? If you buy Premium, you won’t have to listen to this anymore.” I’ll give them credit, because this tactic of being obnoxious works pretty well: paying for Spotify Premium is almost worth it for the sole purpose of removing these ads. The advertisements are incredibly annoying, and are surely designed to be that way.

The absolute worst thing about Free Spotify is how frequently ads interrupt playback. Get ready for annoying ads with Free Spotify

If there’s a blue shuffle icon next to the playlist title, you may only shuffle songs. These include popular editorial playlists, such as “RapCaviar” and “Alternative R&B,” and playlists algorithmically tailored to your listening preferences such as “Discover Weekly,” “Daily Mix,” and “Release Radar.” The songs on these playlists change frequently. There is a caveat with Free Spotify, however you can select songs for playback with unlimited skips, so long as you are listening to them from one of Spotify’s 15 curated playlists under “Made for You” on the “Home” page.

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