Spotify‘s CEO Daniel Ek confirmed earlier in March that the music streaming service will be launched in India amidst reports about opening an office in Mumbai. However all that could change according to reports that the major record labels are looking to block Spotify’s imminent India launch due to the streaming giant’s direct licensing.
According to Music Business Worldwide, the top brass at Universal, Sony and Warner are not satisfied about Spotify’s policy of directly licensing artists and paying them advances, which could lead them to blocking new territorial licenses. This could potentially be bad news for Daniel Ek and co., since it would mean Spotify not seeing a launch in India or anywhere else in the summer.
Spotify’s plans for India include a beta rollout and then a public rollout in the coming months, followed by launches in South Korea, Russia, Middle East and Africa. However to go through with this, Spotify would need territorial licenses from the three major record labels. According to a senior source in US at one of the major record labels:
We already have multiple, very strong partners in all of those markets. It is up to Spotify to convince us why we should help them compete. And right now, for obvious reasons, we don’t feel very convinced.
We are seriously considering [not licensing] India.
Now it remains to be seen what Spotify’s next move would be, considering India is considered an important market by the music streaming giant. Stay tuned with us for more updates.
H/T: Music Business Worldwide