Spotify has slashed the price of its annual Premium subscription package in India.
The annual cost previously weighed in at 1,189 rupees (approx $16.60), but now, thanks to a fresh promotion, new and existing customers can get 12 months of subscription for just 699 rupees (approx $9.76) – the equivalent of less than $1 per month.
This new offer is open until December 31 this year, according to the Hindustan Times, after which the price will revert back to where it was previously.
Existing Spotify subscribers can dump their old package and switch to the new 699 rupees deal, but cannot adjust existing subscription prices. The deal also isn’t available on a Family Plan.
Spotify launched in India in February, and subsequently confirmed in April that it had more than 2 million active users in the market.
The firm is yet to give another update on these numbers, but did say in its recent Q3 earnings call that India had “outperformed our forecast by 30% this quarter”.
SPOT is currently in a legal dispute in India with Warner Music Group‘s publishing company, Warner Chappell. The latter issued an injunction in India against Spotify before the streaming platform’s launch, in an attempt to block the use of its music in the region.
That move, temporarily at least, didn’t have the desired affect: Spotify launched in India anyway, after attempting to clear a statutory license for Warner/Chappell’s music without WMG’s say-so.
The two companies are now awaiting the decision of the Bombay High Court, which is mulling whether or not Spotify qualifies for the statutory license – a piece of legislation more typically used by radio and TV broadcasters in India.
Weighing in Warner’s favour is the fact that, in May, a comparable case – also at the Bombay High Court – went the way of a rightsholder.
Then, record label Tips won its case against local streaming service, Wynk. The latter company argued it should be protected from copyright infringement via the same statutory license that Spotify is citing in the Warner Chappell case.
Mumbai High Court judge SJ Kathawalla ruled that Wynk was “knowingly infringing upon the plaintiff’s copyrights”.Music Business Worldwide
