Spotify US Launch May Be Only A Few Weeks Away

Spotify recently inked a deal with Universal Music that would allow the streaming music service access to some of the music that Universal artists make. That deal hinted that the US launch of the service was very close to happening. Spotify general manager Jonathan Forster has said at an ad conference that the music service is wrapping up the final licensing deal for the US launch "as I speak." The announcement hints that the launch could be only a couple weeks away.

Music fans in the US have been counting the days until the launch of Spotify in the states. The same exec has also offered the exceptionally vague "We won't launch before July 5th" tidbit as well. Forester has also noted that Spotify has agreed to a faster monetization strategy to get the deals done than it really wanted to do. Business Insider figures that spending more on the licensing deals will mean that once the service launches in the US we will see less free streaming hours before the service converts to pay.

In Europe, the free streaming is 15 hours. Spotify has three of the four major labels in the US wrapped up already with the Universal deal announced earlier this month. The only remaining major label is Warner and those negotiations are reportedly in the final stages. Will you be giving Spotify a shot when it launches in the US?

[via Business Insider]