Spotify extends mobile reach with Symbian app

Jennifer Whitehead, brandrepublic.com, 23 November 2009, 11:10AM

LONDON - Spotify is now available on a number of new smartphones, including some Nokia models, after the music streaming company launched a Symbian mobile app.

The service will now be available to Spotfiy's paying subscribers, who can download the app by visiting the m.spotify.com site on their mobiles. It works on phones that run on the Symbian operating system, including a number of Nokia models as well as the Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD and the Sony Ericksson Satio.

While the iPhone attracts a huge amount of press coverage, Nokia dominates the smartphone market, and there are estimates that more than 50% of the handsets available globally run on the Symbian system.

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Spotify is already available on the iPhone and on phones using the Android operating system. The Spotify Mobile service is available in the UK, Spain, France, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Gustav Soderstrom, director of portable solutions at Spotify, said: "The launch of Spotify's Symbian app opens up our mobile music service to potentially millions more music fans across Europe."

Separately, Spotify has said that a report claiming that one of 2009's biggest recording stars, Lady Gaga, had earned only $167 from Spotify from her track 'Poker Face' despite it getting a million plays over five months, is inaccurate.

Spotify said that the figure quoted was from shortly after its launch and "is not representative of growth since then". It also pointed out that the figure was only what was paid to the Swedish Performing Rights Society, and that other payments would have been made to the song's publisher and the record company.

With the service's US launch delayed until next year, Spotify has admitted that it has to do a lot to educate the American market before it can launch there successfully.

The company has not revealed how many people using the service have signed up for the premium accounts, which cost £9.99 a month in the UK, but it is thought that the vast majority have opted to stick with the free, ad-funded version of the site. US record companies are said to be worried that the ad-funded model will not generate enough income for them to make it worthwhile.