Until September 23, Spotify’s Canadian site offered people who had never tried Premium three months of Premium Individual for C$0, with C$13.99 a month to follow. Amazon offers some customers a trial of Prime, and some online casinos credit spins to a new account before any deposit arrives. Three very different businesses, one pitch: use it first, pay later.
The price at the door is zero, but none of these offers comes without conditions. Each asks for something up front, whether a card number, a verified email address or weeks of your attention, and each is built around one moment: the point where a sampler starts paying or walks away.
That moment is where the economics of the trial sit. Researchers have put numbers on it, regulators in the US and Quebec have acted on it, and online casinos run a version that asks for money at the other end.
Why a sample sells what a description can’t
Entertainment is hard to judge from the outside. No product page can tell you whether a music app’s picks will suit your ear, or whether a streaming library will hold you past the first weekend. A trial swaps the pitch for the product, so the decision rests on use, not on a promise.
Handing the product over costs the seller money. Spotify’s annual report for 2025 books the cost of providing free trials as a sales and marketing expense, and says that cost typically takes the form of per-user royalty fees owed to rights holders. A listener on a free trial usually costs Spotify royalties before paying it a cent.
Spotify keeps paying because the trials work. The same report says Premium subscriber growth has historically accelerated during its trial programs, which it has run three times a year since 2022. Free trial offers and global campaigns were meaningful contributors to its gross subscriber additions in 2025, a year that closed with 290 million Premium subscribers, up 10%.
The length of the sample matters as well. RevenueCat’s 2026 State of Subscription Apps report, citing Appfigures data, counts more than 14,700 new subscription apps launched in January 2026, against about 2,000 a month in January 2022. In its dataset of more than 115,000 apps, trials of 17 to 32 days converted to paid at a median 42.5%, against 25.5% for trials of four days or less. Nearly half of apps now use the shorter kind anyway.
Freemium apps run the same idea with no deadline. An earlier comparison on this site of free and paid budgeting apps noted that free versions typically cover basic budgeting, while paid subscriptions often add advanced reporting, bill payment reminders and investment tracking. The free tier is a sample that never runs out.
What the default at the end of a trial is worth
Spotify’s and Amazon’s trials both continue into a paid plan unless the customer steps in, so doing nothing becomes the path to paying. Economists have tried to measure how much subscription revenue rests on that default.
A study of payment-card data by Liran Einav, Benjamin Klopack and Neale Mahoney, published in the American Economic Review in 2025, followed ten US subscription services through the months when customers’ cards were replaced, which forces an active decision to keep paying. Cancellations ran much higher in those months. Measured against fully attentive customers, the authors’ inattention model put the revenue boost from inertia at 87% on average, ranging from 14% to more than 200% depending on the service.
Many customers see that default coming. In a field experiment with a European newspaper between 2018 and 2020, Klaus Miller, Navdeep Sahni and Avner Strulov-Shlain tested promotions of two or four weeks, free or at €0.99, that ended either in an automatic full-price subscription or in automatic cancellation. The auto-renewing version drew about a quarter fewer takers.
The newspaper still took in 21% more revenue from the auto-renewal offers right after the promotions, but the gain faded. After a year, revenue from the two versions was level and the auto-cancelling promotion had produced more subscribers. Readers offered auto-renewal were 9% less likely to subscribe at any point in the following two years.
Customers won through a trial can also be worth less over time. A 2015 study in the Journal of Marketing Research, drawn from household panel data at a digital TV service, found the average lifetime value of free-trial customers 59% lower than that of regular customers. They did respond more strongly to marketing and to their own usage.
Companies narrowed their trials and regulators targeted the rollover
Two big streaming names have already reshaped the offer. Disney+ stopped giving new subscribers a week-long trial in June 2020, a move a company spokeswoman characterized, CNET reported, as part of testing different offers. Netflix’s help centre now describes a limited trial for eligible new members in certain countries, which appears during sign-up for those who qualify.
Spotify still runs trials but gates them. Its Canadian page says people who have never had Premium may be eligible, asks for a valid payment method even for a trial and promises a reminder seven days before it ends. Its annual report also warns that some jurisdictions have implemented or are considering laws that could hit its recurring billing or its free and discounted trial incentives.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission took on the sign-up and cancellation screens themselves. On September 25, 2025, it announced a settlement worth 2.5 billion US dollars with Amazon over allegations that it enrolled people in Prime without their consent and made cancelling difficult: a civil penalty of 1 billion US dollars plus 1.5 billion US dollars in refunds for an estimated 35 million consumers. The order requires Amazon to disclose whether Prime auto-renews and to allow cancellation by the same method used to sign up.
In Canada, Quebec now regulates the moment a promotion ends. Under rules in force since September 12, 2026, a consumer who may end an online subscription must be able to do it with an accessible, easy-to-find button on the website, and audio and video streaming are among the services covered. When a contract sets a higher price after a promotional period, the merchant must send written notice 2 to 10 days before that period ends, giving the end date and the price that follows.
Ontario and Alberta keep casino trials out of public ads
Online casinos have a trial format of their own, the no-deposit offer, and in Ontario and Alberta the regulators reach it at the advertising stage. Ontario’s Standard 2.05 keeps bonus promotion inside two walls: a casino’s own site, where the player has already chosen to be, and messages sent to people who actively agreed to receive them. Bonuses themselves stay permitted, the AGCO’s guidance explains; what the standard bans is public advertising of them, targeted and algorithm-based ads included.
Alberta’s market, which opened on July 13, 2026, runs on the same principle: AGLC standards issued in June allow bonus messages only on a casino’s own site or in direct marketing after express player consent. Both provinces also regulate the words on the offer. A bonus may be called free only when it truly is, the label risk-free is off limits whenever the player must lose or risk their own money to use a bet or withdraw its winnings, and the material conditions must show when the offer is first presented.
Elsewhere in Canada, provincial sites sell gambling directly, from British Columbia’s PlayNow to Loto-Québec’s online casino, and casinos licensed abroad also take Canadian sign-ups. Whether players in those provinces may lawfully use foreign-licensed sites remains a contested legal question. BonusFinder Canada (bonus.ca) says local regulations prevent it from advertising casino bonuses in Ontario, and that visitors from that province are shown only licensed casinos.
The casino version asks for money at the exit
Seen from a province other than Ontario or Alberta, a no-deposit offer turns the subscription model around. BitStarz, which Gareton B.V. runs under a licence from the Curaçao Gaming Authority, credits spins at registration with no deposit required. Its bonus terms ask for a verified email address instead, rule out disposable ones, and let the spins lapse if the game isn’t opened within a day or the rounds aren’t finished within a day of opening.
The deposit comes last. Winnings from the spins carry a 40x wagering requirement, so C$10 won means at least C$400 in bets, and anything above C$150 is forfeited. The terms also bar withdrawing any no-deposit winnings until the player has put at least C$20 into the account. A trial that renews can convert through inaction; this one converts only through a deliberate deposit, with any winnings held back as the invitation.
|
Offer |
Who can get it |
What happens at the end |
How a paying customer is made |
|
Spotify Premium trial, Canada |
People who have never had Premium, if eligible |
Premium Individual continues at C$13.99 a month unless cancelled, with a reminder 7 days before the trial ends |
A charge to the payment method entered at sign-up |
|
Amazon Prime trial, Canada |
Certain customers Amazon chooses to offer it to |
Membership continues automatically unless the member cancels or turns off renewal before the charge |
A charge to an eligible payment method on record |
|
BitStarz registration spins |
New players who verify a non-disposable email address |
Spins expire unless opened within a day, and winnings stay locked until 40x wagering is met |
A deposit of at least C$20, required before any spin winnings can be withdrawn |
The BitStarz figures come from its bonus terms, last updated in June 2025, and the operator reserves the right to amend its free-spins terms without notice. The spin count also differs by region: BonusFinder Canada notes that some regions see a 30-spin promotion, while Canada’s is set at 50. For readers outside Ontario and Alberta, its page on the bitstarz no deposit bonus lists the Canadian version’s spin count, winnings cap, wagering and email check.
A trial with no fixed price on the other side
Another difference shows up after conversion. A subscription trial turns into a known monthly fee. A casino trial has no set price on the other side, only whatever a player deposits next, so the ceiling has to come from the player, set before the spins run out.
Casino play is for adults. Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec set the minimum age at 18, and the other provinces set it at 19. Ontario’s BetGuard lets players exclude themselves from every regulated Ontario site, and AGLC’s centralized program covers all of Alberta’s registered platforms. BitStarz’s Play Safe page handles exclusion from its own site through its support team.
If play stops feeling like entertainment, call someone who can help; all five lines here answer 24 hours a day. Manitoba’s Problem Gambling Helpline is reached through 1-800-463-1554, and 1-800-306-6789 serves Saskatchewan’s Problem Gambling Help Line, a free and confidential service. Alberta’s 24/7 Addiction Helpline treats gambling as part of its work, and Albertans reach it through 1-866-332-2322. The Gambling Support BC Line serves British Columbia through 1-888-795-6111, and ConnexOntario covers Ontario from 1-866-531-2600.