The popular Swedish music streaming service is to make its debut in the US today, having signed deals with all four of the major record labels: Sony Music, Universal, Warner and EMI.
Last week Spotify began inviting Americans to submit their email address so they could be notified when the service was available to sign up to.
“Spotify is coming to the US. The award-winning music service that’s taken Europe by storm will soon be landing on US shores. Millions of tracks ready to play instantly, on your computer and your phone,” an announcement said. Since 2009, Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder and chief executive, has been repeatedly promising to launch Spotify in the US, but lengthy negotiations with record labels have meant a long wait for users across the pond.
The US product is understood to be very similar to the European product – with a free advertising supported service and two-tiered paid-for product allowing advert-free streams and with the most expensive subscription, mobile access to the service’s large catalogue. The free service is expected to be limited to just six months and was believed to be one of the main sticking points in negotiations with record labels as executives felt uncomfortable about giving away music for free with only advertising revenues to fall back on.
Sources learned that the service failed to launch in the US last year, because the major record labels demanded “extremely high cash advances”. It is not clear if these demands were met, but cash flow is not a problem for the company following a recent $100m (£61m) funding round that values Spotify at $1bn.
