Spotify: “piracy is bigger in New Zealand than it is in Australia”

Launches in Australia and New Zealand earlier this month have brought Spotify into 15 markets globally and The Music Network has spoken with Kate Vale, the company’s head of Australasian operations. She talks about the delayed launch (catalogue and ingestion issues), but denies licensing issues held it up and does not regard Rdio getting there first as a problem (“If anything it’s great for us. It paves the way. We find in any market we launch we have competitors there before us. It only helps us.”). She would not be drawn on uptake numbers but makes some interesting points about the market differences between Australia and New Zealand. “Kiwis are very much into indie music. And they love their homegrown music,” she says. “Also, I believe piracy is bigger in New Zealand than it is in Australia. Hopefully that is a good opportunity for us to get more money into the music industry.” Finally she vehemently denies that the company is looking to do bundled carrier deals with Virgin Mobile in Australia and Vodafone in New Zealand.

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