Thanks, Apple? Non-US Spotify fans get a longer free trial
This is an odd piece of news. A article from iDownloadBlog has pointed out that Spotify has decided to extend its premium trial from 30 days to 60 days, but only for users outside the United States. The move might be considered a response to the upcoming launch of Apple Music, which provides a three-month trial period for free.
Spotify Premium normally costs $9.99 per month, the same as Apple Music. Spotify offers a single 30-day free trial of the service to all users, but for some reason has begun extending that for non-U.S. users.
So why focus just on non-U.S. users? Granted, the non-U.S. audience is large, but it seems that providing the 60-day free trial just to that group of users still leaves out a large number of possible customers. Then again, Spotify currently offers U.S. customers three months of premium service for just $0.99.
With the June 30 launch of Apple Music looming, Spotify has a lot to lose from Cupertino’s entrance into the music-streaming industry. Both services offer the same basic things: more than 30 million tracks, most of which are probably the same, support for the desktop and mobile, and the ability to download tracks for offline listening.
The difference is that Apple Music will be right in front of anyone with an Apple device. For people who already keep their downloaded music in iTunes, Apple Music will completely blur the line between the music you own and the music you can stream.
Who knows? Maybe Spotify’s longer free trial for non-U.S. customers will help, but I have serious doubts. I don’t think Spotify is going away anytime soon, but I do believe that Apple Music will give it a serious run for its money, especially this fall when Apple releases an Android app for the service.
See also: Times Square is the site for Beats 1’s latest new ad, What you need to do to get Apple Music, and Rock out with these streaming music services.
