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Spotify launches in Australia and New Zealand

Spotify has announced it's bringing its streaming catalog of over 15 million songs to customers in Australia and New Zealand

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has welcomed Australian users to the service Spotify

Spotify launched its streaming service in Australia and New Zealand today, bringing the total number of countries served to 15.

"Australians are massive music fans and we've created a service that we know they'll love", said co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek in a press release.

As in the US, customers in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to choose between a free account, Unlimited (AU$6.99) or Premium (AU$11.99).

Spotify has also announced localized apps including one from youth broadcaster Triple J and licensing deals with all four major Australian music labels, APRA (equivalent to the RIAA) and a raft of independent labels.

While the number of Spotify users around the globe is predicted to be as high as 20 million, Spotify's official number is "more than 10 million". Sony's Music Unlimited has about 1 million customers but both pale compared to 's="" million="" users<="" a="" rel="follow" target="_self">.

While the US enjoys a wealth of streaming services, most--including Pandora--are unavailable in Australia with Sony Music Unlimited the only other significant service launching in February 2011.

Meanwhile, Sony made its Music Unlimited iPhone app available to Australia and New Zealand users from today.