Spotify signs exclusive deal with Finnish telecoms firm

Tue Mar 9 2010, 18:03 PM

Spotify is granting Finnish telecoms firm TeliaSonera exclusive rights to sell its premium service in Finland. The premium service will be offered over TeliaSonera's broadband, mobile and IPTV services in an extension of a deal agreed in October. It is only the second bundled-service deal secured by Spotify. The other deal was with mobile operator Hutchison 3G UK. 

Deal Details

Spotify's exclusive deal with Telia gives the Spotify Premium service access to 1.6m Finnish households. Exclusivity deals with telecoms companies could seriously damage the reach of Spotify's premium service. In some countries Spotify is facing direct challenges from the music services of telecoms companies. Virgin Media and BSkyB are both said to be releasing their own services in the UK, called MusicFish and Sky Songs respectively.  

Spotify has been desperately seeking to deliver Spotify Premium through companies with pre-existing client billing relationships. However, ISPs are believed to be avoiding deals because ISP customers can use the web to access Spotify's free version.