Spotify says ‘Mabuhay’ to Filipino music lovers

MANILA, Philippines – Following launches in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore last year, music streaming service Spotify expands its reach in Asia with its Philippine launch on Tuesday, April 8.

The service allows users to discover and listen to music for free on their computers and mobile devices. Premium subscribers get to download and keep the music on their offline for as long as they remain subscribers. 

With more than 6 million paid accounts and 24 million users worldwide, Spotify has become one of the most popular names in the digital music streaming industry. It is currently available for download on PCs as a standalone program, and on mobile devices as an app. The service also includes social features such as sharing of playlists and ‘following’ friends and celebrities.

Spotify launched in Sweden in 2008 and expanded to the United States in 2011.

In the Philippines, users are given access to a library of over 30 million songs including local hits. Upgrading to a Spotify Premium account costs P129, cheaper than premium subscription rates in most countries. In the US a premium account costs $9.99. The premium version offers ad-free usage on mobile and desktop and offline usage.

Meanwhile, Globe subscribers can get Spotify Premium with the new GoSURF postpaid plans. GoSURF 299 provides 700MB of data plus 30 days of premium access, while GoSURF 999 increases the allowance to 5GB. For prepaid Globe subscribers, a non-premium version of Spotify will be offered via GoSURF 10, which provides 10MB for one day starting April 13.

Using Spotify won’t count towards data consumption of GoSURF subscribers, according to Globe.

“This is our promise to music lovers in the Philippines: We’re just about to offer you the best free music experience ever. In the end of last year, we made quite a significant change in the business,” said Sunita Kaur, Spotify’s Director for Asia. — Rappler.com