Last week, the word on the street was that everyone’s favorite European music service, Spotify, was finally nearing a deal with major music labels in the U.S. and would soon enough be on its way across the pond. Today, Media Memo’s Peter Kafka reports that the company “has finally signed with Sony for U.S. distribution deal.”
While this doesn’t necessarily get the company onto North American shores, it certainly brings the ever-mysterious app one step closer.
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Kafka writes that multiple sources tell him that the deal is closed and offers some details:
I’m told the deal calls for a U.S. service that more or less mirrors the one Spotify offers in Europe: A certain number of hours per month of free streaming music, with the ability to pay for an ad-free version, or a more popular one that offers the ability to listen on mobile devices like Apple’s iPhone.
According to Kafka, neither Spotify nor Sony have commented. To make it to U.S., he says, “it will need at least two of the three other big music labels to sign on board.” When examining rumors of the deal last week, the New York Post reported that labels were urging the service to take on a different, subscription-based form. If it is allowed to keep its current ad-supported form then it could be a disruptive force in the online music market. For now, we’ll wait and see how it fares with other labels.
For the uninitiated, check-out ReadWriteWeb’s extensive coverage of Spotify – it’s our most favorite app that most of us have never even used.
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