World premier as Spotify joins Telia's digital TV service

Spotify, an online music service based in Sweden, is currently being used on millions of computers and mobile telephones. Now it’s time for Spotify to conquer the living room of Swedish and Finnish households and one of their favourite home devices – the television set. Today, TeliaSonera (Stockholm: TLSN) – as the first television operator in the world – is launching a version of the popular Spotify music platform through its digital-TV service in Sweden and Finland.

Today, Telia and Spotify are taking another step towards realizing their vision of letting all their users listen to the music of the entire world, when and how they want. Today, this popular digital music service is moving into the living room and joining Telia’s digital-TV service, where Spotify will keep company with Sweden’s largest online video store with 2,500 movies, among other services. The version of Spotify that is being launched will allow users to play all playlists that have been compiled to date, and to mix music, as they please. Several accounts can be saved on Telia’s digital-TV box so everyone in the family, or their friends, can quickly access their favourite music. Spotify on a television offers the advantage of allowing users to easily enjoy music through a home theatre system, which more and more people are connecting to their television sets. Starting in June 2010, Spotify can be used by approximately 120,000 Telia digital-TV customers. The service is easily managed on the remote control used for their digital-TV box.

“People in Sweden love music. Although we usually take our favourite music with us everywhere on portable devices, we still listen to a lot of our music at home, and especially in our living rooms,” says Stefan Trampus, Head of Broadband Services at Telia. “When people can log onto Spotify right on their television set and enjoy music from the entire world, we believe it will attract new groups to the world’s hottest music service today and what is probably Sweden’s best digital television service.”

“Bringing Spotify into the living room is a natural step to make our music service available to people wherever they happen to be,” says Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.

Spotify’s music management platform currently has more than seven million users and the service is being developed and enhanced constantly. Previously a service for early adopters, Spotify now has a much wider user base, especially because the service is user-friendly and because it works on most computers and a growing number of mobile handsets. Now Spotify is taking the step into digital television together with Telia.

In October 2009, Telia signed an agreement with Spotify to become the sole operator in Sweden to sell and market Spotify, and to participate in the music service’s development. An application was launched just a few weeks after the collaboration agreement was signed, allowing subscribers to have Spotify on iPhones. A version of the app was introduced soon afterwards for Android smart phones.

Facts

From the start, approximately 120,000 Telia digital-TV customers will be able to access Spotify on their televisions. During 2010, about half of all Telia digital-TV customers will be able to use the music platform. Customers with older box models can upgrade to a newer box by buying one, or by extending the binding time for their digital-TV subscription. Spotify functions on all new boxes supplied today. A Spotify Premium subscription is required to use Spotify on a television set. The service costs SEK 99/month, including VAT. Spotify Premium can be used for an unlimited time and is free of advertisements. When the service becomes accessible to customers in Sweden, it will also become available to digital-TV customers in Finland.