14 DAY TRIAL // The music streaming business is a tough one. Even the most obviously successful player, Spotify, is hardly flying high. The big problem is getting enough people to actually pay for the service, rather than leach for free.
Well, the actual big problem is that royalty rates to the recording labels amount to 97 percent of its revenue, but that's another story.
One method for getting more people to sign up is to bundle the subscription with one they're already paying, like their phone bill for example.
Spotify already has partnerships with Telia, Virgin Media and a couple more carriers in Europe, now it's announcing a new deal with T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom).
"Deutsche Telekom is the exclusive partner in Germany for the leading music streaming service Spotify, and the first German telecommunications company to bundle a Spotify Premium subscription with its tariffs and as an add-on option," the telco said in a statement.
"As of October 2012, customers will be able to listen to more than 18 million music titles via their mobile phone, tablet and PC - both online offline," it announced.
Subscribers will get access to Spotify Premium, which is regularly €10 by itself ($10 in the US), allowing them to stream music with the desktop app but also with any of the mobile apps available. Premium users also get Spotify on a large number of media-center type devices.
The Spotify add-on option for Deutsche Telekom subscribers will also cost them about €10. Subscribers to a €30 contract will be the first to get the option and Spotify Premium will be free for them from October till the end of the year. To be clear, the Spotify subscription is on top of the €30. Any data used by Spotify though is free and won't add up towards the monthly caps.
Deezer was one of the first to be really successful with a deal like this. It partnered with Orange (France Telecom) which actually bought a stake in the country, netting it a big surge of subscribers.