Sweden-based music streaming service Spotify will make its India debut in the next six months, according to a report in Variety.
Spotify has already secured deals with some of the popular music companies. According to several media reports, Indian music record label, T-series has also made a deal with the company.
The platform will offer an extended free trial period after its launch in India. Spotify currently offers a 30-day trial to all its new customers across the world.
Under the free trial, Indian users will get full access to Spotify Premium which the Swedish streaming giant offered in Vietnam and South Africa when it launched earlier this year.
The development comes after the Swedish company entered 13 Arab markets, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt earlier this month.
The Stockholm-based company is currently available in 78 markets across the world and has 83 million paying subscribers as of June this year.
Spotify had also disclosed in its public offering filing that it has leased office space in Mumbai last year and has 308 employees in aggregate in India and 20 other countries.
Former OLX India CEO Amarjit Singh Batra had joined as the Spotify’s India country head earlier this year.
Several media reports suggest that prominent US labels such as Universal, Sony, and Warner had held up Spotify’s India launch by not providing music licenses for the market. This was after Spotify had started bypassing the labels by directly licensing music from artists.
Spotify was launched in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
With its India launch, Spotify will face stiff competition from several companies such as Gaana, Amazon Prime Music, Saavn, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Hungama have already entered the online music streaming sector in the country.
Recently, US-based entertainment platform Gracenote also launched its global music metadata service in India.
