Spotify quietly ditches music downloads - for now

Spotify quietly ditches music downloads
Farewell Spotify downloads, we hardly knew ye

Are you one of the eight people who bought music through Spotify? Well, you're out of luck. The music streaming specialist has suspended its download store.

Update: Spotify has sent us a new statement on the matter: "We recently updated Spotify to further simplify the service and pave the way for new features announced at the end of last year.

"In-app purchases aren't part of this update but we're not ruling out their return. Credits/gift cards already purchased are still redeemable."

Spotify still displays the option to 'get' songs but when you try and 'get' one, you're told "We're no longer supporting new download purchases on Spotify" and pointed in the direction of an FAQ page with more details.

The company is at pains to point out that you can still access your existing music purchases - and if you have credits or a gift card to use you'll still be able to use them to buy downloads. But new credits and download-friendly gift cards are off the table - for now, at least.

Download and out

Nobody knows how long Spotify has halted the download store for - or how long its no-downloads policy has been in place.

If Pocket-Lint hadn't tried to buy a song earlier today, who knows how long it would have been before anyone noticed - proof, if it was needed, that it was not exactly Spotify's most popular feature.

Spotify isn't letting any more details slip at this point; when we contacted the company, it responded only with "We're no longer supporting new download purchases on Spotify" and not much more.

From Pocket-Lint

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.