Spotify Strikes TV Deal with Samsung for Direct Streaming of Music

By Rob Scott
October 17, 2012

Samsung has signed a deal with Spotify that will allow direct music streaming from Samsung TVs for consumers with premium subscription memberships.
“The deal will give Samsung a new way to promote its televisions; Spotify, meanwhile, hopes the arrangement offers a new incentive for consumers to pay for its subscription service rather than use its advertising-backed, free-of-charge offering,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
The partnership comes as numerous tech companies are entering the growing music-streaming market.
“Digital-music sales, including both streaming and downloads, are expected to soon overtake sales of physical CDs as the main source of revenue for music labels and publishers,” explains WSJ.
Transitioning customers to pay for the subscription service may become more important to Spotify since its ad sales growth is reportedly slowing.
Samsung E-series sets will include a software application that enables streaming via Spotify. The application will first be available to owners of Samsung TVs in the UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia. The company plans to expand the service to its Blu-ray players and home theater systems by the end of 2012.
“Last year Samsung launched its own music service, called Samsung Music Hub, but analysts say the deal with Spotify may signal that Samsung may now realizes how hard it is to ink music streaming deals with record labels,” notes the article.

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