Spotify will soon branch out even further into Sweden – the market from which it emerged in the first place. The company has signed a two-year cooperation agreement with Swedish telecommunication service provider Telia. The partnership will, among other things, launch Spotify mobile phones and new services for TV and computers. That’s an interesting new sideline for the startup and is sure to boost revenues.
In a couple of months Telia plans to launch a specific mobile phone with Spotify for its customers. Currently the application runs on the iPhone, Android and Symbian S60. Plans to bring Spotify to Telia’s TV-customers and launch new computer services are more vaguely described as happening sometime in the future. [Update: TechCrunch reports INQ is building the specific handset, and that will probably roll out to other markets]
At the moment Spotify’s streaming services account for about 35 percent of the digital music sales in Sweden, which is an enormous amount considering the startup only just turned one year old. The company hopes the contract with Telia will make even more Swedes use their services – as if they didn’t already.
According to Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, Telia’s strong market position will enable Spotify to reach out on a much wider scope than before.
The contract is another win for Spotify in the mobile phone market. In August the company’s application for the iPhone was greenlit by Apple.