Spotify brings free listening to all smartphones and tablet devices

11 Dec 2013

Legendary rock band Led Zeppelin is putting its entire back catalogue on Spotify

In a move that is going to see Spotify go head-to-head with Apple’s iTunes Radio service, the music-streaming player has revealed it’s going to be available for free on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

The company, which is going live in 20 new markets today, said the free music service will be similar to the existing desktop service, where users will be able to listen to a number of songs for free as long as they listen to a number of ads.

An ad-free Premium version of Spotify is already available to users who pay a monthly subscription.

Announcing the new ad-supported service for mobile devices, Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek observed that tablets are becoming the new desktops.

“Today we’re giving people the best free music experience in the history of the smartphone and the tablet,” Ek said.

“Whether you’re going to the gym, or having a party with friends, just sit back and let Spotify serve you great music for every moment of your life.”

Last week, it emerged that Spotify has paid out more than US$1bn in royalties. Spotify said it pays out 70pc of all the money it earns in royalties.

Led Zeppelin enters the Spotify age

Spotify also revealed it has struck a deal with Led Zeppelin to make the band’s legendary Atlantic/Swan Song catalogue available for streaming on Spotify.

In fact, Led Zeppelin’s full album catalogue will be available to stream on-demand for the first time, exclusively on Spotify.

Starting today, fans across the world can stream songs from the band’s first two albums (Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II) with additional albums being released at midnight local time each day for the next four days, making the full Led Zeppelin catalogue of studio and live albums available on Spotify by Sunday, 15 December.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com