© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Samsung Galaxy S10+ launched in San Francisco on February 20, and pre-bookings for the India have already begun. Interestingly, the India units of the Galaxy S10+ we have seen comes with the Spotify app pre-loaded on it, suggesting the music streaming service is all set to launch in India. The Spotify India launch has been talked about for a while now, and the service could go live before these phones end up with users from March 6 onwards.
Previously, it was reported that Spotify’s music service would launch in India by January 31, 2019, though that did not happen. Back in November 2018, Bloomberg had reported that Spotify had managed to secure rights deals with many major music companies, which would boost its content library for India.
The report had said that Spotify would launch in India by the first quarter of 2019, so a launch in early March would fit within the time frame.
T-Series, which is one of the major players in India had confirmed to Bloomberg that the company’s deal with Spotify was on. The T-Series catalogue has over 1,60,000 songs, and Spotify had confirmed in January 2019, that all of the music was now available on the service.
It was reported by Variety that Spotify would offer an extended free trial period when it launched in India, which would be longer than the 30 day period. Spotify has already setup an office in India with a staff of 300 people, according to the Variety report.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 series will be going on sale from March 8, according to the company’s official press statement. This means Spotify could launch before this date or after, considering it is already pre-loaded on Samsung Galaxy S10 units for the Indian market.
We could see Samsung announce a special deal for Galaxy S10 users who want to try out Spotify, though the formal announcement might only take place one the music streaming service has started in India. Back in August 2018, Samsung and Spotify had signed a deal where the app would be made available to customers set up their new Samsung phones.
Spotify, when it launches in India, will enter an already crowded online music streaming space. There are players like Gaana, Saavn (which is now part of the Reliance Jio), Airtel Wynk, Hungama, along with Apple Music and Google Play Music as well which already have decent user bases.
