The competition between music streaming services is heating up with
Spotify bringing out the big guns. The Swedish streaming giant's forging new business partnerships and expanding ones that already exist in order to continue their dominance. According to a report by
Music Business Worldwide, Spotify will come pre-installed on millions of new Samsung devices. This deal between Spotify and Samsung came into effect starting March 8.
What Do Users Get?
Apart from coming pre-installed on millions of Samsung devices, Spotify also announced a new promotion that offers a free six-month Spotify Premium subscription to new Galaxy S10 owners. But, there's a catch. The free Premium offer only works for new Spotify customers. If you already have Premium, had subscribed earlier, or even used a free trial, you’re out of luck. For now, the deal is only available to S10 customers in the US. Samsung and Spotify may expand that offer to other phones in the future.
Samsung mobile devices on which Spotify will be pre-installed include the soon-to-be-released Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G, Galaxy Fold and select Galaxy A Series phones. Spotify also integrates with Samsung’s intelligence platform Bixby enhancing the Bixby Home screen by providing tailored Spotify content and recommendations.
Before Spotify, it was Google Play
Spotify’s not the first streaming platform that Samsung has offered as a default music player on its mobile devices. Back in 2017, Google Play was named as the default music player on the smartphone maker’s then-new Galaxy S8, S8+. Samsung also partnered with TIDAL in October 2018 to launch an app for Samsung TV.
Spotify's
blog post read, "From our integration with Bixby, Samsung’s intelligence platform, to our availability across TVs tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches, we’re just getting started.”
Sten Garmark, VP of Consumer Products, Spotify, said:
"This partnership makes it easy for Samsung mobile users to access their favorite music and podcasts on Spotify, wherever they are and however they choose to listen."
Patricio Paucar, VP of Marketing, Samsung Electronics America, added:
"Our goal is to deliver the best possible mobile experience to our consumers, and Spotify is the ideal music partner to help us make that vision a reality"
Does Spotify-Samsung Partnership?
It’s a logical move for both the companies. The two companies had earlier announced a deal that would make Spotify the default music option for Bixby. Including the app on new Samsung phones is a sensible next step forward.
This move also makes sense because of reports that demand for Samsung’s new smartphones are coming in stronger than anticipated. Spotify's biggest rival already has this edge over the Swedish company as every iPhone sold comes with Apple Music. If Spotify wants to stay in the lead, it will have to build new partnerships and forge fresh relationships.
Latest figures show that Spotify currently boasts 96 million paid subscribers while Apple Music has more than 50 million subscribers. While some contend that Apple Music will inevitably surpass Spotify, the Swedish company in recent years has performed impressively at boosting its total number of paid subscribers.