14 DAY TRIAL // Spotify is expanding once again and is now available in Italy, Poland and Portugal. The music streaming service has been available in several European countries, but is still far behind Deezer in terms of reach.
That's part of the strategy, Deezer is focusing on casting as wide a net as possible, Spotify is focusing on the more lucrative markets first.
"We’re thrilled to announce that Spotify is available in Italy, Poland and Portugal from today," Spotify announced.
"There are millions of songs on Spotify – from old favourites to the latest hits and the coolest new music. Just choose the music you love, or let Spotify surprise you."
If you're from any of the three new countries and have been waiting for Spotify, all you need to do is visit the website and sign up.
New users get to enjoy Spotify for free for a year, they can listen to as much music as they like but there are ads.
If you're willing to pay, the Spotify Unlimited tier will remove all the ads and the limitations from the desktop app and Spotify Premium makes it possible to listen to music on your phone, tablet and many other devices, TVs, set-top-boxes and so on.
Both paid tiers are available in the three new countries. With the latest expansion, Spotify is now available in 20 places: the US, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Luxembourg, Italy, Poland and Portugal.
Deezer, which is shaping up as Spotify's main contender internationally, is available in hundreds of countries. However, Spotify has five million paying users, compared to Deezer's three million, and 20 million users in total.
It's very likely that it's making more from each user or at least paying less than Deezer overall, but it's still too early to tell which strategy is the best one, if there is such a thing.