Spotify launches music streaming service in Israel
Israelis can now join 159 million people listening to catalog of 35 million songs, including tailor-made playlists
Spotify announced Monday that it had launched its music streaming service in Israel.
“We’re incredibly excited to launch Spotify in Israel with a revolutionary new music experience,” said Veronica Diquattro, Spotify’s managing director in southern and eastern Europe. “Thanks to our huge music catalog of over 35 million songs, truly personalized recommendations and the best playlists curated by music experts and fans, Spotify makes discovering the music you love easier than ever.”
The music service offers a choice of a free ad-supported service, or an ad-free premium subscription service that costs NIS 19.90 per month.
Spotify boasts over 159 million listeners worldwide.
The service offers playlists tailor-made for Israel, including “Israel’s Top Hits,” “New Mediterranean,” “Hip Hop Generation,” and “Israeli Weekend,” as well as millions of international playlists.
With the Israel launch, the streaming service is now available in 62 countries.
Founded in 2006 by Ek and Martin Lorentzon in the staid Stockholm suburb of Ragsved, the firm now has 71 million paying customers worldwide, twice that of closest rival Apple Music. Other competitors include Google Music, Tidal, Deezer and Napster.
Yet Spotify, which estimated its value to be as much as $23.4 billion in its application to list some of its existing shares on the New York Stock Exchange, has yet to turn a profit.
In 2009, Spotify won the public backing of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who posted: “Spotify is so good.”
In 2011, when Spotify launched service started in the United States, it allied with Facebook.
It quickly won one million paying users, and the following year had five million.
According to the website The Trichordist, Spotify paid an average of €0.03 ($0.037) for each song listened to by a user on the platform.
AFP contributed to this report.