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Spotify iPhone and Android apps available to non-Premium subscribers, playlist purchasing coming later today

Spotify has announced some major updates to its streaming service and its mobile apps. Those of your with a free account will be finally able to make use of the iPhone and Android apps.

But don’t get too excited – you won’t get access to the Spotify library on the go in the same way you would if you were a Premium subscriber.

Rather, the new apps allow you to wirelessly sync your own MP3s that you’ve imported to the Spotify desktop player from iTunes, Windows Media Player etc.

Basically, this replaces your phone’s default music player, and offers a wireless syncing service similar to what DoubleTwist has done on Android phones for ages now.

So to clarify, this doesn’t give you a mobile equivalent of the free desktop Spotify – the one interrupted by adverts and the lovely Roberta. This is another way of wirelessly getting your own MP3s on to your phone.

Though not exactly new it’s pretty cool all the same – we much prefer the look and feel of the Spotify player compared to the bog standard Android player. It’ll make phones like the INQ Cloud Touch, which features the Spotify app as its music player, a more attractive proposition too.

The other exciting new is that Spotify is bringing a ‘playlist purchasing’ option to the table. This is set to be rolled out later today “as part of an automatic update”.

Spotify’s blog post mentions that prices start at 50p per song, cheaper than the standard iTunes 59p by a pretty wide margin.

The BBC is reporting that tracks will be sold in ‘bundles’ that work out at £7.99 for ten tracks, £9.99 for 15 tracks. £25 for 40 tracks and £50 for 100 tracks. So it’s only ‘50p per song’ if you go for the £50 option. No word if Premium subscribers, who already pay £9.99 a month, will get a discount on these prices.

It looks like you’ll have to pay for these bundles through the Spotify desktop app as well, in the same way that you can buy single tracks via the 7digital service for 99p a throw.

Recently, Amazon updated its Android app, adding a music player to its existing MP3 app store. This means you can buy, download and play music all through one app. It’s all very convenient and very nicely done – we’d love to be able to do this on our Spotify mobile apps too. Throw in a lock screen widget and FLAC support and Spotify would pretty much own the mobile music scene.

The new iOS edition is available to download now, while the Android version has yet to appear in the Market – we’ll let you know as soon as it does.

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