Spotify Delays U.S. Launch Until 2010, Cites Publisher Talks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 12, 2009 - 9:48am.

London - Spotify, the ad-supported streaming music service currently available in parts of Europe, has postponed its planned U.S. launch until 2010 as it continues to negotiate agreements with thousands of U.S. music publishers, CEO Daniel Ek announced at the Monaco Media Forum, according to reports.

The service, which is currently available in Sweden, the U.K., Spain, France, Finland and Norway, was slated to launch in the U.S. yet this year.

"The US is a different beast. Most people are not still not aware of the service or how it works -- so we have to do spend time educating the market... The US music labels want to get there and are very excited about Spotify but there are thousands of publishers we need to get signed up and fully informed about the service," said Ek, according to the Telegraph's coverage.

Ek also pointed to China as another lucrative potential foreign market; the company partnered with Tom Group to help it launch in China.

"In terms of developing markets, we are focused on launching Spotify in China. The potential is massive over there. Eighty million people have a broadband connection and its quickly growing," Ek continued.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/t7fqq (Telegraph.co.uk)

http://snipurl.com/t7fqe (PaidContent)

http://www.spotify.com