Spotify's free tier finally lets you search for specific songs
It's not just lossless audio the firm had up its sleeve
by Joe Svetlik · What Hi-Fi?It's not just paying Spotify customers who are getting more value – those on the free tier are too.
Fresh from launching lossless quality to Premium subscribers, Spotify has now announced three new features for its free tier. These include – sharp intake of breath – the ability to search for a specific song and then listen to it.
It's incredible to think that that feature was missing in 2025. But then for a free tier, you can't expect too much.
You can also play any song you stumble upon while browsing (what Spotify calls Pick & Play) and play any song that's shared with you by a friend or artist. And you can now create your own playlists (with your own custom artwork), and listen to podcasts.
Previously, free users could only shuffle tracks based on a chosen one, or listen to predetermined playlists.
We recently docked Spotify a star due to its high price and lack of lossless audio quality. Now that the latter has been addressed, and more features have come to the free tier, could it earn back its fifth star? Stay tuned for a reappraisal of our Spotify review soon...
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