The much-awaited launch of the Spotify music streaming service in India, has finally happened. Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, is now available across a gamut of devices that you may own or would like to access Spotify on. As it is globally, Spotify is available in India with an ad-supported free subscription tier, as well as premium tiers. For India, Spotify is currently focusing on English and Hindi music, as well as Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

If you wish to sign up for one of the premium subscription packs, you can choose to start off with the 30-day free trial post which you will pay Rs 119 per month for full access to all the music and the premium features in the app. There is also the option of doing a pre-paid sign-up to Premium for specific durations. If you wish to access Spotify Premium for 1 day, it will cost you Rs 13. A week-long premium subscription is priced at Rs 39, a monthly subscription is priced at Rs 129, its Rs 389 for 3 months, Rs 719 for 6 months and Rs 1189 for an year. Interesting to note that you can only sign up for the free-trial if you choose to pay with your Mastercard or Visa credit or debit card but can select the other duration prepaid options if you wish to make the payment for the Spotify Premium via Paytm or UPI modes.

You may want to subscribe to Spotify Premium if you wish to get access to some premium-only features such as very high-quality music streaming and downloads for offline listening (these are 320Kbps files), no advert interruptions and the ability to download music for offline play. However, the free subscription option still offers access to the entire library of music on Spotify India and remains ad-supported.

Spotify will be using artificial intelligence algorithms to curate ‘city playlists’, based on what people in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai are listening to. Spotify will also offer multi-music recommendations based on your unique listening preferences.

At this time, Spotify will be available as apps for your smartphone and tablet (free download for Android and iOS), Windows 10 PCs, macOS computing devices, Android TV, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and also available via the web browser. Spotify is also compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in-car infotainment platforms.

“Indians love music. It’s an inherent part of our lifestyle and culture, whether we pray, work, or relax. The mobile internet revolution has led to a rapid rise in the number of connected Indians, making music streaming the preferred way to enjoy music here,” says Amarjit Singh Batra, Managing Director, Spotify India.

The latest numbers shared by Spotify confirm that it has 207 million active users globally, of which 96 million pay for Spotify Premium. In India, Spotify will have to contend with competition from the likes of JioSaavn and Gaana, both of which also offer a free ad-supported subscription option, as well as the familiar global competition such as Apple Music (Rs 129 per month), Amazon Music (bundled with the Rs 999 per year Prime subscription) and Google Play Music (Rs 89 per month). Interesting to also note that the latter two also have their smart speaker ecosystem in India, called the Amazon Echo and Google Home.