Back in February, MBW told you that, following its arrival in India, Spotify‘s next major territorial target would be Russia.
Today, it looks as though the service’s arrival in the country might not be very far away at all.
An unverified screenshot posted by a Reddit user in the past few days claims to shows an official pricing reveal for Spotify in the market.
According to the picture, a Premium subscription will cost 150 Rubles per month, which works out to around US $2.35.
MBW reached out to Spotify, but the company declined to comment.
Spotify rival Apple Music, which has been present in Russia since 2015, costs 169 Rubles ($2.65) per month, while local service Yandex Music is priced between 169 Rubles and 229 Rubles ($3.59).
Spotify was originally going to launch in Russia back in 2015, but that plan was abandoned.
As first reported by Russia-based news outlet RBC in February 2015, the cancelled launch in the country was confirmed by Alexander Kubaneishvili, an ex-Google executive who was hired to head up the streaming service’s efforts in Russia.
Kubaneishvili reportedly wrote to Spotify ‘partners’ at the time confirming the cancellation for the ‘forseeable future’ and cited economic and political reasons for the failed launch.
“I regret to inform you that Spotify refused to launch in Russia in the foreseeable future,” said Kubaneishvili. “There are several reasons – the economic crisis, the political situation, the new laws governing the internet.”
In March this year RBC reported that Spotify would be launching in the country this summer following a report published by analysts at banking firm Sberbank forecasting Spotify’s entry into the market this year.
In that article, RBC also cites a source as saying that Spotify had been “in an active stage of negotiations with leading Russian music labels.”
Spotify ended Q1 (the three months to end of March) with 100m premium subscribers, up 32% (+25m) year-on-year.
Russia, with a population of 143.9 million people is the world’s 23rd largest recorded music market, which was worth $98.4 million in 2018, according to the IFPI.
MBW sources tell us that, after Russia and its recent arrival in India and the Middle East, Spotify’s next priority territory for a fresh launch is South Korea.Music Business Worldwide
