With the launch of the Galaxy S10 today, Spotify released a press release regarding its relationship with Samsung and how it is expanding that partnership today. Spotify will not be pre-installed on the Galaxy S10, in case there weren’t enough apps pre-installed already.
In addition to Spotify being pre-installed, Samsung Galaxy S10 owners may be eligible for an extended free trial of Spotify Premium. If you have not signed up for Spotify Premium in the past, you can get six months of the service for free. Unfortunately, this won’t work for those that have already used Spotify Premium.
The other main caveat for this six month free trial is the fact that it is only available in the US.
Last fall, with the Galaxy Note9, Samsung and Spotify announced this partnership, and integrated the popular streaming service with Bixby. It’s already pretty integrated with Bixby, and “enhances the Bixby Home screen by providing Spotify content and recommendations tailored for each listener.” This makes it easier to find new music to listen to from Spotify, which is going to keep users using the service.
The partnership was a common sense thing for both companies. Getting Spotify onto some of the most popular smartphones in the world can’t be a bad thing for Spotify – a music streaming company that has been losing money since it debuted almost a decade ago. That also came after Samsung shuttered its own music streaming service. This allowed Samsung to get rid of another app on your smartphone, only to replace it with Spotify.
Google Play Music is still pre-installed on all Galaxy S10 smartphones – and all Android smartphones that use Google services. This is because it is required by Google, in order to get Google Mobile Services on their smartphone. So there are still duplicate apps, when it comes to streaming music, leading to some confusion on Samsung smartphones, but at least consumers can uninstall if they wish.
For Spotify, this is a big deal. As it is now competing with the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple, in the streaming music space. For a startup, that’s some stiff competition. Considering Amazon, Apple and Google all have revenue coming in from other areas and products – not to mention the fact that they are behemoths as well – so they are able to undercut Spotify. But with Spotify being available on Samsung products, and being tightly integrated into Bixby, it gives them a bit of a leg up on the competition.
The Galaxy S10 is now available around the world, if you did not pre-order a Galaxy S10, you can still pick one up from your carrier, or Samsung.com and other retailers. You’ll still be eligible for this six month free trial of Spotify Premium. With Spotify Premium, you are essentially getting ad-free music, and the ability to use Spotify Connect to stream on smart speakers and other products. Normally, Spotify Premium would cost you $9.99, but getting it for free for six months is a pretty good benefit after spending nearly a grand on a new phone.