Spotify, the popular music streaming service which was officially unavailable in India till date, has accidentally revealed on its website that the India launch is slated to take place on January 31st. This follows multiple rumors and reports of the impending launch just before the company goes for an IPO later this year.
In a webpage on their official website related to terms and conditions of usage of the platform, the list of countries where the terms are applicable includes India which indicates that the service is bound to launch in the country, and the effective date on which these terms would be applicable from is mentioned as January 31, 2019, onwards. This further confirms that the launch will take place by the end of this month officially in India.
We were hearing rumors about Spotify launching soon in the country, especially due to the recent contract signed by the company with T-Series, one of India’s largest music production houses. The contract was signed to bring local Indian content to the platform globally. However, how the platform would provide regional content not produced by T-Series remains to be a question, since various other music streaming services in India like Gaana, Saavn or even Amazon Prime Music offer a wide variety of content in regional languages as well, something that Spotify will have to tackle if they want to capture a wide audience.
Another important factor to consider is that with the rise of inexpensive 4G data in India, telecom operators like Jio and Airtel have partnered with various music streaming services to provide free access to them, for example, if you recharge your Jio number, you get free access to Jio Saavn. Similarly, Airtel offers a free subscription to Wynk Music for all its users. Given all these free services, it would be interesting to see how Spotify will price their subscriptions and if consumers would indeed be keen to invest in the platform’s streaming service.
There is no official statement about the India Launch yet and these are just cues picked up from the official website. However, the official announcement should be imminent as January 31st isn’t too far off.