Stars of Camden Crawl 2011

I am extremely disappointed to see that so far Spotify has not responded in any way at all to the thousands of upset users. I really think you guys urgently need to sort out your PR because you are in real danger of losing your company's popularity and reputation very quickly and most of your free users to competitors. Your PR suggests to myself and others that now that Spotify has 1 million subscribers - more than any other streaming service, you no longer care about the other 9 million free users who are obviously a costly burden to the loss making company. We have to like it or lump it. There has been nothing from Spotify in the past two weeks to suggest otherwise. This is how I think Spotify could limit the current PR disaster and permanent damage to the Spotify Brand and reduce the flow of people to rival companies: Postpone the changes on May 1st preferably for 6 months so that people have plenty of notice and come back with something better and more acceptable like this: To retain existing free users: 1. Offer a Buy One Year Get One Year Free or 12 months at half price deal for Spotify Premium / Unlimited for All free users who have signed up before May 1st 2011 for the first 6 months after the changes are made. 2. Allow Spotify Premium to be streamed on up to 5 computers simultaneously provided all have the same IP address. This would make Spotify Premium a much more attractive option for families. Remember most families still only have 1 full time earner. To help prevent piracy: 3. Create a £2.49 a month desktop only plan topped up by advertising for students, people on low incomes, unemployed people (people subscribe to SKY TV and don't worry about the ads so why should music be any different?) - those who CAN afford £4.99 a month are unlikely to pay £2.49 a month and put up with ads and will pay the £4.99 a month instead. This also allows people to try Spotify at a reduced rate. 4. For those who cannot even afford £2.49 a month or who use Spotify very infrequently - offer 24 hours use desktop only with no expiry date for 99p - like the former day pass but it doesn't expire until the 24 hours of play have been used up. To continue playing after that you have to buy another 24 hours of music or a monthly plan. 5. Scrap the 5 play per track limit for free users but limit use to 1 hour per day and a total of 5 hours per week and allow free users to only play individual tracks one at a time - they cannot add them to playlists. Every track played is preceded by an advert or a promo to subscribe to Spotify as on We7. Existing playlists up to the point of the changes are saved for free users however but can no longer be added to or played without a subscription. If the company can no longer afford to provide a permanent free service however replace ongoing free use with a 30 day trial of Spotify Premium for all new users. I believe these changes would be fairer and more palatable, whilst allowing Spotify to continue operating in the longer term.