UK ISP Virgin Media has inked its long-anticipated partnership with streaming music service Spotify. The ISP will be offering Spotify to its customers over broadband, mobiles and TVs – the latter through an integration with its TiVO-powered set-top box. Virgin Media customers will be offered multiple flavours of Spotify, including its £4.99-a-month Spotify Unlimited online-only tier, and the £9.99-a-month Spotify Premium.
It is unclear at this point which of the two will cover TV access, but we suspect it may be the latter. Virgin Media is also promising ‘exclusive features and content’ and special promotions. The ISP will offer special offers and an exclusive signup window to its existing customers, and is promising that existing Spotify users who sign up for Virgin broadband will be able to keep their accounts but take advantage of the bundled offers. Key will be the pricing, and whether it is bundled into the cost of broadband/TV/mobile, rather than being a separate add-on.
The deal is Spotify’s biggest yet with an ISP, and signifies what may become an increasingly important strategy for the music service as it looks to increase its audience of paying subscribers, as opposed to free users. Judging from this morning’s announcement, Virgin Media will not be offering Spotify’s free tier to its customers. Source: Music Ally Blog
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