Spotify has announced its latest partnership with a telco, and it’s a big one: AT&T in the US.
Subscribers to the network’s ‘AT&T Unlimited & More Premium’ contract can choose to include Spotify Premium in their bundle for no extra cost. Spotify is one of seven ‘premium entertainment’ options in the bundle alongside Pandora, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz and VRV, but customers can only choose one. However, Spotify said this is the start of a bigger partnership with AT&T that will also see other customers offered a six-month free trial of its premium tier.
That’s a direct response to Apple’s announcement in January that AT&T’s rival Verizon would be bundling an Apple Music subscription into its own ‘Beyond Unlimited’ and ‘Above Unlimited’ plans, while continuing to offer a six-month trial subscription to customers on its cheaper plans.
Matching bundles for the two biggest streaming services and telcos in the US, then. Third-ranked T-Mobile has taken a Switzerland approach with its ‘Music Freedom’ initiative to remove data charges for a variety of streaming services, while fourth-ranked Sprint has a relationship with Tidal. Those two telcos are trying to merge, and if that goes through, it will be interesting to see which approach to music partnerships prevails.
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