Music subscription service Spotify may finally be ready to launch in the United States come July. Spotify’s General Manager of Europe and Global Vice President of Ad Sales, Jonathan Forster, said the last of the necessary deals are currently being wrapped up and the service could launch in the states after July 5, according to Silicon Valley Watcher.
“We’re signing the remaining deals as I speak,” he said.
Spotify is finally heading to the U.S.
Record labels needed strike deals with Spotify before the popular service could make the move from Europe to the U.S., and that led to a more agressive monetization strategy that Mr. Forster would’ve preferred.
Spotify has been working for some time to bring its service to the U.S., but faced ongoing delays. The company had even said at one point that it would be running in the U.S. before the end of 2010 — which came and went without a launch.
The delays, according to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, were the result of negotiation issues with the record labels.
“Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry,” Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said at the time. “As far as Warner Music is concerned [they] will not be licensed.”
Mr. Ek indicated last year that Spotify would launch in the U.S. with a US$10 a month subscription fee. With the record label’s insistence on pulling in more money faster, however, U.S. listeners may find themselves paying more for the service.