Spotify and Google Said to Be in Talks in the US

The fourth quarter, the period when Spotify was supposed to launch in the US, is gone and still there’s no sight of the free music streaming site. The delay was expected after talks with the music labels failed to reach a mutually-appeasing compromise. New rumors are surfacing though which claim that the two parties are getting closer to a deal, but one that doesn't look too promising for the actual users. It sounds like there will be a free version of the service in the US, which the music labels have been against, but it will be available to only a small number of people.

At least that's what TechCrunch is claiming, citing people close to the matter, but how exactly this will work out is anyone's guess. It might mean some sort of invite system which would definitely limit the number of people which could actually use the free service.

Spotify has been invite-only in the past in Europe as well, but this was mostly during its beta period and it benefited from a lot of well-deserved hype. Spotify may very well be shooting itself in the foot by going for an invite system in the US. But it may employ other kinds of limitations and we'll just have to wait and see what it comes up with.

Another, much more interesting but a lot sketchier rumor, though, is a supposed deal with Google which wanted to bundle the Spotify Android app with its soon-to-be-launched Nexus One phone coming tomorrow by all accounts. The app would be free to use, the regular app only comes with the paid premium version of the Spotify service, and Google would have covered the cost of licensing the music from the labels, which is estimated to come in at $3 to $4 per user per month.

The app would also feature advertising to generate revenue and profits on top of the licensing costs. Apparently, the initial plan was to reveal the app with the launch tomorrow, but sources are now saying that the talks have halted. The music streaming landscape is changing rapidly and a number of new players have already launched or are planning to soon, so Spotify has to move fast and get its product on the US market while the hype it managed to generate is still serving it.