Spotify Has Officially Come To India

Yesterday, Spotify was reported to launch its services to a number of users in India, and the company plans to release nationwide today, according to Variety.

Spotify will offer its premium service free of charge within the first 30 days, then it will cost a monthly amount of Rs 119 (approximately $1.67). In addition, there are packages for a course of 12 months, six months, three months as well as monthly and weekly plans. The company will also offer free service which is ad-supported.

In March 2018, the music streaming company made its first announcement about its plan to launch in India. In November 2018, Daniel Ek – Spotify CEO, said that there were licensing situations preventing the company from the launch.

In January 2019, the music platform signed a global content deal with India’s largest music and film company T-Series which has a catalog of over 160,000 songs. According to a TechCrunch’s reporter, winning the Indian market is not an easy game for Spotify. The reason for this challenge is its biggest rival – Gaana, the local music streaming service provider with over 80 million users. Besides, the company will have to compete with Wynk and Saavn, as well as companies from North America like Apple, Amazon, and Google.

In separate news, Spotify and Warner Music Group are fighting in a legal battle. Earlier this week, Warner Music Group requested a court in Indian to block Spotify from streaming music from its catalog.

Earlier this month, Spotify released its financial reports for 2018 along with a new update in its Terms and Conditions. Accordingly, attempts to avoid or blocking advertisements will result in suspension or determination of the account. A report published in 2018 revealed that approximately 2 percent of free users on Spotify make use of accounts or apps which block advertisements coming between songs. The company then emailed users that pose unusual actions, telling them to remove the ad-disabling software. And in case of refusal, the company terminated the accounts.