Are you a free user of Spotify? Then you may soon find unpleasant surprises while listening to music. We refer to songs that appear in the lists that you follow, and that you did not place there.

Apparently all this comes from an agreement between Spotify and the record labels. For now this feature is in the trial period, and from the platform of streaming music insists that you can choose not to listen if you do not want.

The feature could catch many non-premium users off guard, so it pays to be aware. If finally the results of the tests are those that the company considers opportune, then the function will see the light.

It could be interpreted as an update of the radio formula. In other times (when vinyl records were still used and in general the physical format was the most used support) the record companies paid the radios and the DJs who worked on them to pick certain songs from certain artists more frequently. This practice is known as payola.

With this kind of modernization of the payola there will be no legal problems according to the medium, given that the sponsored music will be labeled as such and will be purely optional. However, you will share a characteristic with the previous years: you will listen to music that probably does not interest you or that you would not search for on your own.

Spotify could face harsh criticism from users if they finally decide to roll out the sponsored songs, but it makes all the sense in the world that they want to try and get an extra source of monetization.

Although the numbers of paid users have improved over time, a large percentage of Spotify users do not pay for a subscription. Using these sponsored songs could better complement the advertising revenue that the platform has thanks to free users.

As expected, paid users will not have to worry about songs they do not want to hear appearing on their playlists.