Spotify Extends Free Listening In U.S.

It's been nine months since Spotfy launched in the U.S. and if the music streamer mirrored its own European rules, many of it's free accounts were about to become limited to 10 hours of listening per month.  But this morning Spotify announced that it would extend free music listening for U.S. users indefinitely.

"We’ve been so overwhelmed by the US response to Spotify that we’ve extended the honeymoon for unlimited free listening," the company said in a brief email this morning.  It's an expensive choice for Spotify who must pay rightsholders for every stream. Ad revenues and income from the estimated 10% of customers who pay for Spotify Premium, currently covers only a portion of that cost.

But the move to extend free service in the U.S. comes at a time that Spotify, who have already raised $100 million, are going to investors for another major funding round, reportedly based on an aggressive $3.5 billion valuation.  TCV and Andreessen Horowitz have already passed on the deal, according to reports.