Spotify officially enters PH via Globe Telecom

Spotify has taken a different approach for its official debut in the Philippines by partnering with a telco to leverage on the massive mobile market in the island nation.The Sweden-based company picked Globe Telecom as its exclusive partner for its latest market, allowing Spotify to quickly reach a potential user base of over 38 million subscribers.Different with previous launches, Sunita Kaur, director for Asia at Spotify, confirmed with Marketing that no local brands were onboard for its Philippine debut, with the exception of global partner Coca-Cola who helped with the Spotify preview last March.Read also: Spotify arrives in the PH via Coca-Cola“We have taken a slightly different strategy for the Philippines. In Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, we indeed had launch partners and for the Philippines it will be Globe and we wanted it to be just Globe.”Starting 13 April, Globe will offer free Spotify services bundled with the GoSurf data plan. It competes with Deezer, which announced a tie-up with rival Smart Communications just last month.Non-Globe users can still access Spotify for free or subscribe to Spotify Premium for a monthly fee of P129 for unlimited ad-free listening and an option to download music.“This is beyond advertising. This is bringing utility to people’s lives. Everybody loves music and with Globe’s offering allowing so many users to have Spotify Premium, it makes perfect sense,” she adds.Spotify will be meeting with media agencies starting 9 April and will focus on pursuing advertisers once subscription numbers pickup. To date, Spotify has over 24 million active users globally, 6 million of which are paying subscribers.Local operations will be managed out from its regional office in Singapore but ad sales in the country will be managed by Better Digital Solutions as a local reseller, Kaur confirms.Spotify’s initial marketing charge will be also led by Globe starting around the April-June period, Peter Bithos, Globe’s chief operating advisor, said.“We are happy and excited to bring Spotify in the Philippines and we will tell everyone. We will be investing dramatically in the second quarter to make sure that every Filipino hears that with Globe you can get free Spotify,” he explains.Read also: Globe starts Project WonderfulSpotify became a hit in Europe when it was launched in 2008 and has rapidly expanded since. It is now currently available in 56 markets across the world, 5 of which are from Asia.Spotify will offering 30 million songs in the Philippines, which include original Pilipino music. As for apps, Spotify can be accessed on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry.