Yes, it's the news that musical sponges all over the world have been fearing, Spotify could be going premium-only.
What may seem unimaginable to anyone below the age of 18, but at one point if you wanted to listen to an album, you'd have to go out and buy the thing. While we're not being thrown back into that physical consumer stone age, it seems that in 2016 you'll once again have to pay for art.
According to Digital Music News, sources inside the Spotify have revealed that the app will soon be moving to a premium-only system. This could mean that certain releases will be available only to premium accounts, or only be released to free-users for a limited time period.
The 'premium-only' or 'gated access' model that will be implemented has a number of possible variations at this point. One could see free-users having access to just one or two songs from major artists, while another possibility would see the entirety of the content go to paying customers only.
While it might all seem a bit up in the air at the minute, if the reports are true then the message is clear. We're either going to have to start paying for music, or have to put up with a bit more hassle than just sitting through a few ads every half hour.