Several movie and TV sites have come and go where you can just visit and watch without even creating an account. Quality might not be as good as a paid service and they are no doubt in the grey-to-red zone legally. I don’t see the same service for music.
Why do you think is there such a difference in trends?
Doesn’t Pandora & Spotify have free tiers with ads?
Had to drop my Spotify subscription. Figured I grew up on radio and broadcast TV, few ads won’t bother. Yeah, not like they do.
Maybe I’m paranoid, but I’d swear the ads were reasonable for a bit before they went nuts with them. Feels like I’m being bullied in renewing.
Oh, make no mistake about it, you absolutely are. But OP asked about free options, and Spotify is one. A bad one, but still one.