Spotify Launches in the US

Posted on Jul 14th 2011 11:00AM by Tom Davenport
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Spotify

European music subscription service Spotify arrived in the US on Thursday, July 14, after more than a year of speculation surrounding the stateside release. New users can sign up on the new Spotify US website to receive an invite.

The online jukebox has been available in available in select European countries since October 2008, and allows instant streaming of a huge catalogue with millions of songs.

US subscribers will get better deals than their European counterparts, with 20 hours of free listening hours on the ad-supported "freemium" version -- that's twice the amount available elsewhere. Subscribers will pay $4.99 (£3.09) for unlimited access, and $9.99 (£6.19) to add mobile streaming. UK users currently pay £4.99 ($8.04) and £9.99 ($16.10) for the same service.

The Telegraph reminded us that Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek had promised a US release before the end of 2010, but it took months of negotiation to convince all four major labels to step on board. According to CMU, the company had difficulty convincing the US major labels amid concerns that the "freemium" service would hinder their revenue. But with Warner Music signing the deal only on Wednesday, the company was finally able to release their product in the US.

In May, Facebook revealed their rumoured music service would be an alliance with Spotify (via Forbes), though details of how this will be implemented are unclear.

Meanwhile, Spotify have announced a partnership with Virgin Media in the UK. Virgin will deliver the service to living rooms in line with their existing TV, internet and mobile plans.

Tech Crunch claim that investors gave Spotify $1 billion (£619m) this year -- that's a lot of pressure to perform, and being delivered into the hands of potential customers through Facebook or Virgin might be crucial.

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