There’s nine days left for 2010. Think Spotify will launch in the US in that time? The last we heard on the grapevine, CEO Daniel Ek was supposedly missing Le Web because he was in the US prepping the launch there. Whether that was the case or not, publicly they are now saying “no”.
Spotify recently told the The Telegraph that “We’re definitely on our way to the US but we can’t commit to a specific date”. It would appear negotiations with rights-holders and US labels have still not been concluded.
Unfortunately they’ve been saying all year that it would be this year, after saying last year that… it would be in 2009.
However, they do seem confident they will launch Stateside next year with a service offering some kind of free ad-supported music and a premium version.
Back in October they appeared to be looking for a a COO to head up the US Operation.
Then there was the comment on stage by Facebook at Le Web that “Spotify is Facebook Music“.
It’s all very confusing, but we’ll stick out necks out: We think Spotify will launch next year. However, we predict the service will be quite hobbled, mainly because of pressure from Apple which really does not want Spotify’s very viral application to steal its thunder.