Spotify officially confirms that it's testing a new affordable subscription tier for US$0.99 per month

According to a report by The Verge, the popular Swedish streaming service Spotify is currently testing a brand-new subscription tier. The "Spotify Plus" named membership is intended to be the most affordable way to access the most essential functions of music streaming.

The new 99 cent subscription is basically a mix of the well-known Premium subscription (US$99 for an annual gift card on Amazon) and the free tier of Spotify. Like in the free version, Spotify Plus users will have to live with advertisements being played between their favorite songs. But subscribers of the new tier will be able to skip an unlimited number of songs, and they can play specific songs directly. These two features are not available in the free tier of Spotify, in which users have to resort to the shuffle playback function in order to listen to playlists and albums.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the new Plus subscription will allow the download and offline playback of music on smartphones. Spotify furthermore declared that there is no guarantee that the new subscription tier will be made available to all customers in this exact form. The company is still experimenting with different price points, which means that the final product could potentially cost more than just 99 cents a month.