Spotify Opens Shop in the U.S.

Spotify officially launched its U.S. streaming music service on Thursday. The service has been popular in Europe, and potential customers in the U.S. have waited through several missed launch targets for today.

Spotify in the U.S.Spotify finally gets its U.S. launch

The company is offering three subscription plans:

  • Spotify Free Spotify’s free option requires an invitation to sign up. The company is doling them out, and current Spotify subscribers can share invitations, too. The free version includes ads.
  • Spotify Unlimited The company’s US$4.99 a month offering doesn’t require an invitation, so users can sign up any time they want. It also comes ad-free, and with unlimited music streaming.
  • Spotify Premium For $9.99 a month, subscribers can listen to music online or offline, listen to higher audio quality recordings, and get access to exclusive content. Like Spotify Unlimited, it includes unlimited music streaming and is ad-free.

Spotify’s music library includes over 15 million songs, and it looks like the company worked a deal with Warner Music Group — the last holdout in its label negotiations — in time for the launch. “We have full catalogues from all the major labels and a raft of independent labels including those represented by Merlin, which means all of their artists are being fairly compensated for their creativity every time people enjoy music through Spotify,” commented Spotify Chief Content Officer Ken Parks.

Spotify offers a free iPhone and iPod touch app through Apple’s App Store for managing, syncing and playing music, and subscribers can share music with friends through Facebook, Twitter, text message and email.

Users can sign up for the music subscription service at the Spotify Web site.