Spotify Will No Longer Be Invite Only In The US, And Users Get Their First Six Months Of Service Free

Alexia Tsotsis currently works for TechCrunch as a writer. She is also a blogger who attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. She majored in Writing and Art, moving to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the Entertainment/Media industry. After four years of living in New York City and attending courses at New York... ? Learn More

I’m sitting here at Facebook’s F8 conference with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and he’s just told me that Spotify will no longer be invite-only in the US, and that the service will have no limitations (essentially be free) for an unpaid user’s first six months using the service — the clock will start ticking, and be retroactive, after a user signs up.

This six months leeway will be available both internationally and in the US.

The service is slowly rolling out the new features, so it might take a little time for invites to drop completely says Spotify community manager Andres Sehr. Users will need Facebook to bypass the invite system.

“For music to be inherently social it needs to be an open model, and that’s why we decided to do it today,” says Spotify representative Angela Watts. After the allotted six months have passed, music you encounter on Facebook will count towards your monthly Spotify limit, as you have to go through the Spotify app to listen to it.

Spotify’s tiered plans include a free version, which allows you to listen to up to ten hours free monthly, a $4.99 unlimited version which drops ads and $9.99 premium version which gives you unlimited mobile access in offline mode. “Paid users will continue to enjoy the service they have,” says Sehr.

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Nvidia: We’re No Longer In The Processor Business Because Intel “Preferred That We Weren’t”

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. ? Learn More

If the meek capitulation in the headline sounds uncharacteristic of Nvidia’s infamously outspoken CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, it’s probably because he’s bitter. Though the GPU-focused company announced way back in 2008 that it was going to “open a can of whoop-ass” on Intel, very little has happened, at least on the consumer side. Intel and Nvidia have had some major differences, and remain fierce competitors, but it’s been made clear that Intel won’t tolerate anyone making a grab at its x86 treasure hoard.

But Nvidia isn’t going quietly. Or rather, they’re going quietly just so they can sneak around the back. While Intel is cracking its whip at anyone who wants a piece of x86, Nvidia and ARM, among others, are performing a flanking maneuver in the mobile sector.

Intel itself has expressed contrition regarding its mobile and tablet efforts. When you’re shipping a couple hundred million processors every year, things like the iPad get lost in the shuffle, apparently. But the power level of tablets and mobiles is growing, and Intel has not provided that growth. They promised an x86 handset in 2012, but at this point they’re playing catch-up. Only an tiny fraction of tablets and phones sold use Intel hardware — mainly the Windows-running ones. Meanwhile Nvidia is getting lean and focusing on blowing up their graphics and mobile divisions.

The next couple years might see some interesting partnerships, however. The ARM-Nvidia alliance might go up against something like an Intel-Microsoft-Nokia conglomerate, while team Apple watches from the sidelines. It’ll be a hell of a battle, but the winner will really be the consumer, whom every company will be going out of their way to please. Faster, smaller, and cheaper chips and phones. Sounds like a good deal to me.

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