Spotify brings radio feature to iOS, offers streaming to non-premium users

Swedish music streamer extraordinaire Spotify is updating its iOS app this morning with a key new feature. Radio, introduced late last year for the desktop version of the service, is making its way onto iPads and iPhones in the States for both premium and free users. As with its desktop counterpart, users can generate an unlimited number of Pandora / Slacker-like radio stations using artists, albums, songs and Spotify playlists. The social functionality that Spotify loves so much is intact as well, with both songs and radio stations appearing in friends' Facebook streams. And since the radio feature is available across Spotify's pages, you can make stations based on friends' playlists -- or you can just pick "Create a New Station" from the top of the Radio tab.

You can thumb up or thumb down tracks, with songs you dig populating a "Like From Radio" playlist, making those tracks accessible on different devices. Inter-device functionality also means that you can start a radio station on, say, your iPad and pick up where you left off by firing it up on your iPhone. Premium users get an unlimited number of song skips -- when asked how many skips free users get, Spotify simply told us that it would be "industry standard" (ie, the same number you get on competing services).

Asked when such functionality will be hitting Android handsets, the company told us, "we think it's core to the mobile experience, and we're looking to bring it to all of the major platforms in due time." In the meantime, iPhone and iPad owners can download the update today.

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Spotify brings radio feature to iOS, offers streaming to non-premium users originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.