Have you used Spotify? It's awesome. Unfortunately, the free ride is almost over, pal …

So you got Spotify as soon as it came to the States. You've been jamming on those free tunes like it's your job. Free Spotify has become a vital part of your everyday sanity-preservation strategy. Well you better get ready because there's an end. You may not have been aware — I know I wasn't — but "free unlimited Spotify" never really existed. What you experience as free unlimited Spotify is actually an automatic 6-month trial of Spotify Unlimited, except with ads. The real kicker? Spotify's 6 month anniversary in the U.S. is rolling around next week. So this is a good time for a reminder.

Spotify came to the U.S. on July 14th and and as you can see, all this had already been decided months before then. It's only going to start affecting people in the U.S. starting next week and many of them may not have been aware that this is the case. I can't remember for sure if the whole 6-month free trial thing was explicitly explained to me when I went to open my account a few months ago, or if perhaps it was buried in the Terms of Service. Maybe I'm just oblivious when I sign up for things; plenty of people are. I do, however, know that I wasn't aware of this whole "trial" thing prior to sitting down to write this article. Anyone else in the same boat might be getting a rude awakening. So consider this a warning for the inattentive.

The good times aren't completely over. You can still hear ten hours per month for free, and hear any one song up to five times. You've still got that going for you. Oh, come on now, don't cry … it's gonna be okay … oh jeez … we didn't want you to get all worked up about this … aw, man …

[Source: Geekosystem]