It's Here: Spotify Launches In Australia

Spotify, free music streaming service, has launched in Australia and New Zealand today, giving local music lovers consumers access to one of the world's leading digital music services.

As theMusic.com.au revealed last week, the launch has happened this morning from Spotify's head Australian offices in Sydney. The service is free on an ad-based model, with a premium ad-free versions available for purchase.

You can download and sign up to Spotify at spotify.com.

Spotifiy Free provides access to the 16 million strong song library and the ability to sync them through your mobile or iPad, with advertising. Spotify Unlimited will remove the advertising on your compunter for $6.99 a month and Spotify Premium, for $11.99 a month, opens up offline features across formats, a better sound quality and exlcusive content.

Expecting to go head-to-head with fellow music streaming service Rdio, today's announcement came with quotes from across the industry.

Dan Rosen, CEO of ARIA said, “Spotify provides a wonderful legitimate avenue by which music lovers can consume music online and on-demand. We are excited to welcome Spotify to the Australian market and believe music fans across the country will feel the same.”

Warner Music Australia's Director Of Marketing, Beth Appleton, said, “Having used and loved streaming services, including Spotify for a number of years I'm very pleased that Spotify is about to arrive down under… For those who haven't used a streaming subscription service yet… your music adventure is about to commence, this will change the way you listen to and discover music."

"It's a great destination to legally discover and enjoy new artists and music,” added EMI Music Australia's Chairman Mark Poston.

The service has launced today with a number of partners, including triple j, who've a Spotify add-on app, Sonos wireless speakers and Virgin Mobile.

Here's a Spotify playlist featuring artists from some of the big news stories you've read on theMusic.com.au this past week (plus some cover-star love, Azealia, and Regurgitator just because they're awesome):

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