14 DAY TRIAL // Spotify’s plans to expand the service to the TV are now bearing fruit with the announcement that the music-streaming service has been launched on TV sets with its partner TeliaSonera in Sweden and Finland. Initial plans were announced last fall, but the company has stayed quiet ever since. Spotify Premium subscribers can now access the service on TVs as well as on their mobile phones, like until now.
“We’re delighted to announce the launch of Spotify on TVs across Sweden and Finland. As part of our partnership with TeliaSonera we are making Spotify available to their digital TV subscribers as of today,” Spotify’s Andres Sehr writes.
“The app will be available to TeliaSonera digital TV customers who have subscribed to the Spotify Premium service. The app gives you access to a streamlined version of our music application that can be used to listen to Spotify playlists on your TV screen via the TeliaSonera remote control,” he adds.
The Spotify app will be accessible through set-top boxes installed by the cable operator. Users will be able to listen to their music and employ all of the features they are accustomed with in the web version of the app. TeliaSonera has about 120,000 digital TV subscribers in the area, all of whom could potentially get access to the music-streaming app, provided they are already Spotify customers.
Granted, listening to music on their TV is not something most users are likely to do very often. Those that have a decent multimedia system set up, but haven’t hooked it up to their PCs, will appreciate the option, though. And it’s certainly a more laid-back experience, which is what the TV is all about, after all.
Spotify needs partnerships of this kind to drive up revenue. The free, ad-supported app by itself won’t pay the bills, and the service needs people to pay money regularly to survive. With more and more competitors launching, Spotify’s initial advantage is getting smaller.