[UK] 3UK has announced it’s launching a tariff with an inclusive Spotify premium subscription which will be bundled with their first Android handset, the HTC Hero. Hutchison Whampoa, which owns 3, is an investor in Spotify. There were rumours of the move but this is now official confirmation.
The offer will come in at £35 a month over 24 months plus £99 for the Hero handset. That tariff includes unlimited use of Spotify Premium on both the handset and the owner’s PC for 2 years, 750 minutes to other mobiles, unlimited texts, unlimited data, and other usual 3 tariff features like free Skype calling.
That is a pretty good deal.
The announcement hints at Spotify appearing on other handsets and, I daresay, other networks at some point.
This really is a very big deal because it effectively means Spofity is going to go after becoming the default music provider on mobile. That means Nokia’s Comes With Music offer will be buried even deeper than it is already.
How long before we start seeing handsets with “Comes with Spotify” stickers?
Very good news!
“The announcement hints at Spotify appearing on other handsets and, I daresay, other networks at some point.”
Agree. Just a question of time.
Is there any update to if and when this will be available in the US?
sounds great. Would love to see more of these deals, like android phones with prepaid skype credits + spotify or even newspaper/magazine subscriptions . will create a whole new model for mobile service consumption.
Very similar to what Omnifone were doing packaging subscription music services with unlimited data via mobile operators. Vodafone launched their service a while ago.
Spotify is already available to run on any android device (and I think iphone too, or at least soon) and any network with 3G – just pay the £9.99 per month fee for the premium service and download the free spotify app. Works very well, too – even allowing listening to music whilst offline, e.g. when flying, out of signal range, only 2G speeds, etc.
Highly recommended. Just remember that you are streaming music, so the data plan needs to support such bandwidth consumption – spotify does a lot of caching, and if you sync for offline, then this is even better, but just be careful if your plan is not (truly) unlimited.
I’m surprised that 3 mobile doesn’t get more press. After I recontacted with them they gave me a 20 pound loyalty discount PER month, so I ended up paying 5 pounds a month. In effect I could potentially get this plan for 15 pounds a month (and pay for the phone). That sounds like a great deal to me. No other phone company comes with skype (which effectively means unlimited phone calls to numerous people) so seamlessly installed (i.e. not a broken down version like Skype Lite). Unfortunately, I left England and had to cancel this wonderful contract.
spotify pulling off deals like this gives me huge faith that they’re going to build a sustainble business
I love the product like everyone else does, but to be honest “deals like this” should be foregone conclusions since it’s with one of their investors [!!!]
great phone + great app + great tariff , glad to see 3+GooG + Spotify bringing services with users in mind , iphone has only one thing in mind , trap the users and milk them dry
3UK don’t seem to know anything about it yet.. or it hasn’t filtered down to the ‘expert advisers’ (as of 2pm BST)
‘HTC Hero’ Not on the web site either.
…how does TC get the official heads up before even those that work at the company?? lol
Mat
Spotify blogged about it this morning:
http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/10/19/spotify-teams-up-with-3-uk/
£35? I guess that’s a good deal, but I think I might just go for a lower tariff and £9.99 on top, as I could never justify that much a month… pity as the Hero looks a cracker of a phone.
Like it.
Regarding the tariff, generally the ‘unlimited’ data plans kick off at around the £30-£35 bundles, and given that you’d DEFINITELY need that if you’re going to use Spotify (or, in fact, anything), it makes sense that they’ve gone in at this price point.
Where they ‘get’ you is charging for the phone and the fact it’s a 2 year deal. The handset should really be free, and the extra 6 months is extremely lucrative for the mobile operators, so I’d class this as a good deal, but not a great one.
Kudos to Daniel Ek and his great team: Spotify continues to redefine what it means to access & enjoy the music we love where, when, and how we choose to experience it.