Spotify is planning a free music streaming service for mobile devices.
The company has reportedly signed licensing deals with all three of the global music companies for the ad supported service. Currently, a free version of Spotify is only available for desktops.
Spotify, which has 6 million paying subscribers and 20 million active users world-wide, has been negotiating for nearly a year with the three major record companies— Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Access Industries’ Warner Music Group—over the rates it will pay them to play songs on the free mobile service, and over how much direct control users have over what they listen to, these people said.
The new service will allow users to play a limited number of songs on demand; however, a majority of music will be served based on user’s preferences.
Spotify has invited journalists to an event next week in New York but it’s unclear if the event will be used to launch the new service.
You can download Spotify from the App Store for free.
via WSJ
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