“All the way to Tim Cook, these guys are cutthroat,” said an unnamed music industry source to The Verge.Īpple isn’t the only company that wants to end Spotify’s free tier, though, and this promotion may show that Spotify is listening. Apple’s strategies are getting so fierce that the Department of Justice is even looking into the legality of its practices. According to The Verge, Apple has been speaking with major labels to discourage them from renewing licenses for Spotify’s ad-funded tier. Just today, news leaked that the Apple has been accused of pressuring music labels to remove content from Spotify. The tech behemoth is reportedly prepping a subscription-only service, which will match Spotify’s paid tier at a price of $10/month. Behind the scenes, Apple has been gearing up for the war of the streamers, penning exclusive content deals with Florence and the Machine and more than a dozen other artists, making life difficult for Jay Z’s new music streaming platform Tidal, and hiring star English DJ Zane Lowe to join its team, presumably to help with music curation and creating taste-based channels. New users in the US have the option to ‘try 3 months now for $0.99’ by subscribing to the service on its homepage.Īpple, meanwhile, has its own work cut out for it. One can only assume the gamble proved successful, as the service is bringing it out again as pressure rises.

Spotify originally rolled out the promotion last year around Christmastime in the US, taking a loss in revenue for the three months with hopes of enticing users to stick to the subscription model once the trial is over. The news comes as Spotify prepares to compete against Apple’s soon-to-be-launched Beats-based music service, which is slated for arrival this June. Revealed by Music Business Worldwide, the promotion is being dubbed a loss leader for the service, which makes the bulk of its revenue from paid streaming, as well as bringing in cash from its ad-supported free streaming tier. Fitbit Versa 3Īs pressure mounts from Spotify’s competitors, the Swedish streaming music service is again enticing new users with a three month ad-free subscription for just $1.

Spotify premium 3 months