With Spotify recently named as the top music streaming app on Apple iTunes and Google Play, will more Mobile Operators be partnering with the top brand to offer subscribers data packages bundled with music streaming services? In the recent months, mobile operators world over are offering free music on a variety of tariff plans (read more on each roll out - T-Mobile, Magyar Telecom and Telefonica) as means to attract more subscribers, especially those from the younger age group.
According to Phillipines' Globe Telecom, the country's second largest telecommunications service provider, their Globe GoSURF package that offers free unlimited access to Spotify's music collection sees more than 90% of users listening to music on Spotify on their phones. The high take up of the service and Spotify's recent ranking within the segment indicate that the bundling of music streaming service especially with top brands that provide instant access to milions of music files will be a strategy that more mobile operators will soon follow suit. With users being given the choice to download the files and listen offline and the music being delivered without advertisements, subscribers are likely to use their mobile devices to listen to all the music that they want, especially on packages where the data consumed on music streaming is not counted against their monthly quota.
Globe Telecom's Prepaid subscribers can register to GoSURF10 which gives 10MB of data and free access to Spotify for 1 day, while Postpaid subscribers can purchase the GoSURF 299 with 700MB of data valid for 30 days plus free access to Spotify Premium. Globe Telecom in its statement said that Spotify which has 40 million users in 57 markets worldwide gives users an unbeatable music experience with its amazing audio streaming quality of up to 320kbps and its expansive OPM and global library with over 30 million songs.
"Since we launched GoSURF and Spotify, we have received overwhelming feedback from customers as we provide them an enriching mobile experience with access to browsing and music content in one innovative offer. Spotify proved to be a perfect partner for Globe with its extensive catalogue and its powerful features that make music streaming on mobile more fun and exciting. Our partnership with Spotify has definitely strengthened our vision to cater to our subscribers' digital lifestyles whose mobile needs have gone beyond calls and texts."
- Jenny Echevarria, Globe VP, Mobile Data Services