Spotify has reportedly launched for some users in India today, with plans to officially launch on Wednesday to everyone, Variety, citing sources with knowledge of Spotify’s plans, reports.
Update: It’s now official, Spotify has announced its launch in India.
What’s particularly interesting is that, just for India, Spotify users who do not pay for a subscription can play any song on demand on mobile. There is also playlists for India and a “Starring…” feature that includes music from Bollywood movies.
Here’s a statement from Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek:
As Spotify grows, our goal is to bring millions of artists and billions of fans together from every
country and background. India has an incredibly rich music culture and to best serve this market, we’re launching a custom-built experience. Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, we’ll also bring the world’s music to fans across India. Spotify’s music family just got a whole lot bigger.
Spotify said it now has over 200 million users, of which 87 million are paying customers, and it is in 79 markets worldwide.
The rest of our original post is below.
For the first 30 days, Spotify’s premium service will be free and then cost 119 rupees (about $1.67) per month. There are also single-day, weekly, monthly, three-month, six-month and annual plans. Similar to other streaming services available in India, Spotify will also offer a free, ad-supported product.
Spotify first announced its intent to launch in India last March. In November, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek cited licensing situations as a roadblock to its launch.
Last month, Spotify inked a global content deal with T-Series, a leading Indian film and music company with a catalog of more than 160,000 songs. As TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez has noted, the Indian market won’t be an easy one for Spotify to win. That’s because Spotify is up against local player Gaana, which already has more than 80 million users, Saavn and Wynk, as well as the North American likes of Google, Apple and Amazon.
This launch is happening in light of Spotify’s legal battle with Warner Music Group. Earlier this week, WMG asked an Indian court to block Spotify from being able to play music from its catalog.
TechCrunch has reached out to Spotify and will update this story if we hear back.
Additional reporting from Jon Russell
