This might be one of the last articles you’ll ever have to read about Spotify planning to launch in the United States.
A publication called Noisecast claims to have obtained an e-mail from “an executive of a major label” stating that the much-loved freemium music service will launch here “between July 5 and July 15th.” Earlier this month, Spotify’s global vice president of sales said the service “won’t launch before July 5th” in this country, lending some credence to this new report.
[partner id="evolverfm"]So, what can Americans expect from Spotify, now that they will finally be able to use it to stream over 13 million tracks and carry thousands of them on iPhone or Android phones, the way American technology journalists have been doing for over two years?
Like the Turntable.fm service everyone is talking about right now, Spotify might launch as an invite-only service, according to the reported e-mail, and that it will definitely charge $10 per month — no surprise there, because that’s the going rate for all unlimited mobile music subscriptions. It also says fans can expect Spotify to ”connect nicely to Facebook” (which it already does).
Warner Music Group, whose chief executive has publicly stated that he is done licensing free, ad-supported music services, has agreed to license Spotify in the states, if this report is correct. The apparent reversal of that decision could have something to do with the fact that Spotify has taken steps to make itself more palatable to Warner and other labels by limiting free users to five hours of music per month (after a six-month introductory period) and only allowing them to listen to any song a maximum of five times before paying.
Finally, the stars appear to have aligned in just the right way for Spotify to launch here, finally, freeing the tech press from writing articles like this and you from reading them.
If the service is as big a hit here as it has been in Europe, it will have over a million paying subscribers, making it the most popular music subscription service in the country, generating well over $100 million per year in revenue.
See Also: - Spotify U.S Launch Barely Two Weeks Away: Report
