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It's not out of the kindness of its own heart that music streaming service Spotify has opted not to follow through on its threat to kick off all its freeloaders. With all its success, the company just doesn't have to charge all of its subscribers. When it launched in the U.S. last July, alongside its for-money options, it offered a "free" streaming service, which, for the price of a few ads, allowed users unlimited streaming of Spotify's 11 million song library sans an hour or music cap. Spotify had planned to let that deal expire after six-months, capping the music at 10 hours-per-month. But here we are more than six months out and Spotify has announced it will keep this free-unlimited music set-up going.

The idea behind promotion was get people addicted to what Spotify has called "the best music service on the planet." Then, like good drug dealers, it would hit them up for money. That getting users hooked thing has worked. The company has an apparent 20 percent conversion rate from freeloader to paying customer.* The company now realizes the free-option can continue to provide value to the service. "An unrivalled free music tier is fundamental to that," explained Spotify in a statement via Music Ally. A streamer fed up with ads or looking for a mobile app might upgrade their account for $4.99 or $9.99 a month.