Sprint's CEO announced Tuesday the company is joining forces with Spotify to give its customers a discount on the popular music streaming service.
"Sprint and Spotify are working on a deal that would give all Sprint users a free trial of the music streaming service. It would also allow Sprint users to pay for Spotify on the Sprint bill." (Via WHSV)
According to Re/code, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse announced during an event in New York City that Sprint customers on the "Framily Plan" will get a six-month free trial of Spotify Premium starting May 9.
And once the free trial is up, those customers can continue to use the service for $7.99 per month — that's two dollars cheaper than the normal fee for a premium account. (Via Spotify)
And if you have six to ten people on your plan, the price shrinks even more to a measly $4.99 per month. (Via Spotify)
Even if you aren't on that "Framily Plan" with Sprint, you can still try Spotify Premium for free for three months. But after that, you'll have to fork over the standard $9.99 monthly fee.
Sounds familiar? Well, the agreement looks a lot like the partnership between Beats Audio and AT&T — customers can share a $15 Beats subscription with up to five other people.
Spotify has made deals like this before internationally, but this is the first time the company has done it with a U.S. carrier.
And Spotify CEO Daniel Ek calls this the "biggest deal" the company has ever made. (Via AllThingsD)
CNET quotes him as saying, "When I first met Dan [Hesse], we didn't talk about pricing plans, we talked about speakers and audio quality and Pharrell. That's when I knew we had to partner with Sprint."
The deal is a pretty big deal for Sprint, too.
As Business Insider points out, the company has been rapidly losing subscribers, and a partnership with a popular service like Spotify is "...a good way to add value to customers' plans and keep them from abandoning Sprint for another carrier."
But as Gizmodo highlights, the deal is a win-win for both sides. "Spotify gets to tap into Sprint's millions of subscribers for more Spotify listeners. And Sprint has a peg to lure more people into its network. And we can definitely get down with more streaming music on more ears."
Sprint's new partnership was announced along with the introduction of a new version of the HTC One M8 that's more focused on music.
