Spotify – a music service familiar to Europeans – is now available in the United States.
Spotify has more than 10 million registered users and 1.6 million paying subscribers in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
The United States was named the company’s eighth market on Thursday, according to a report on TechZone360.
“This is a great day for anyone who loves music in the US and, of course, a real milestone for us at Spotify,” according to a company blog post.
“I’m proud of the fantastic team who have been working tirelessly to bring what we think is the best possible music service to our friends in the U.S.,” Daniel Ek, Spotify CEO, said in the blog post.
The company now has an invite-only beta phase which includes: Spotify Free – a free music service. It provides over 15 million songs and social features, the company said. There are some ads. Spotify Unlimited – which has the features of the free service but it is uninterrupted and ad-free. It costs $4.99 a month. And there’s Spotify Premium. Subscribers can listen to music online or offline, on a computer, cellphone or via other devices. It costs $9.99 a month.
U.S. launch partners include Coca-Cola, Sprite, Chevrolet, Motorola, Reebok, Sonos and The Daily.
“We believe that music is the most social thing there is and that’s why we’ve built the best social features into Spotify for easy sharing and the ultimate in music discovery,” Ek said. “Even if you aren’t a total music freak, chances are you have a friend who is and whose taste you admire.”
Spotify is a music streaming service based in Sweden. Users who connect Spotify to Facebook will share favorite songs with friends. There are also shared playlists, the company said on its website.
In his analysis, Sean Parker, co-founder of the original Napster, said the launch of Spotify in the United States “represents the realisation of a dream,” according to a Financial Times blog post.
Spotify named Parker to its board in 2010, according to The Financial Times.
“For a decade I have waited for a music service that could rekindle my excitement about music by enabling music to be shared freely across the world – all the while empowering artists to reap the economic benefits of selling their music,” Parker wrote on Facebook, according to The Financial Times.
Ed Silverstein is a TechZone360 contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves