Spotify expected to make landfall in the US by Q3 of this year?

Europe's largest online streaming music site is about to embark on a trip to the US where they hope to capitalize on the growing usage of its services on a worldwide scale. Spotify expects to jump start their operations in the US some time in the third quarter of this year and they're currently in the process of making deals and partnerships among companies in the industry to get their service to a broader audience. The Stockholm-based company has approximately 7 million users in Europe with about 325,000 users on a paid service that offers ad-free listening with the company. Not only are they trying to entice US Internet and wireless providers about potential partnerships, they're also in discussion to start app development on BlackBerry and Palm smartphones. Paul Brown, Senior Vice President said that, “We’re buying server space in random parts of the states and there are licensing discussions too,” Brown said “But they are going fine because we’re in a long-term partnership with the labels and publishers.” Looking at it closely, Spotify will compete in a market here in the US that's mostly held by music services like MOG and Rhapsody – they already have some leverage as paid customers already have access to apps on the iPhone, Android, and Symbian platforms.

source: Bloomberg