When we first reported that music streaming site Spotify finally entered the Philippines, it was a quiet state of affairs. There wasn’t much fanfare, just some Facebook posts, occasional tweets, and a link to register on the music streaming site through an email code from Coca-Cola.
Today, all that has changed as Spotify announces its official launch in the Philippines. This time, the company ties up with Globe, a leading telco in the country. Through Globe’s GoSURF Data plans, mobile subscribers in the country can have access to their Spotify account for as low as $0.22 starting from April 13 onwards. Below are Globe’s subscription rates for GoSURF Data Plans
- PHP 10 ($0.22) – 10MB of data plus access to Spotify for 24 hours
- PHP 299 ($17) – 700MB of data plus access to Spotify for 30 days
- PHP 999 ($22) – 5GB of Data plus Spotify premium.
An amount of PHP10 allowing 24 hours of Spotify is certainly interesting. If you are expecting a long bus ride for the day, or are gearing up for an entire day of desk work, this plan is definitely worth checking out. Interestingly, it appears that with the Spotify subscription account, regardless if you use up the 10MB of data for the day in, lets say, 2 hours, you will still be able to access Spotify for the whole day.
It is also important to know that the first 2 plans above give you only the “free version” of Spotify (Read: Ads every now and then). Users can of course opt to pay a monthly fee of PHP 129 to get rid of ads and enable the ability to store their music offline.
While the partnership between Spotify and Coca Cola provided the beverage company with a new marketing platform, this partnership with Globe puts Spotify in the hands of Globe’s multimillion subscriber platform. Globe, on the other hand, makes sure its goSURF plans are more appealing with the addition of Spotify in the mix.
This announcement from Spotify came after music streaming site Deezer secured a deal with SMART, another leading telco in the Philippines. There are other local music streaming sites already thriving in the Philippines. With the official arrival of both Spotify and Deezer, the market has just become more competitive and it will be a battle of who has the most appealing product.
Ultimately though, I hope the arrival of these giant music streaming sites in the country brings to a close an important issue – music piracy. With access to legal tracks for less than $3, it is certainly an attractive offer to those who would like to buy music but are unwilling to pay more than $5 for CDs.
Also read: Music streaming site Deezer partners with Philippine telco SMART
