Report: Spotify to launch as invite-only in the U.S. this week

By Aemon Malone July 11, 2011

There are rumblings that suggest that music subscription service Spotify is planning to move ahead with a stateside launch at some point this week. Earlier this month, Spotify confirmed that it was indeed planning on coming to the U.S., but didn’t provide any specific time references for a launch.

Now, according to Mashable, Spotify plans on launching its service this week here in the U.S., but will do so in an invitation-only format (à la Google+’s recent launch). Last week, Spotify posted a landing page that announced, “the award-winning music service that’s taken Europe by storm will soon be landing on US shores.” The page also included an invitation signup form. As of this writing, it’s still possible to register for an invitation.

In case you’re in the dark as to why this is such a big deal, consider that Spotify currently boasts around 10 million users in Europe. The company is also rumored to be working with Facebook to integrate its music service with the social networking site. Spotify, unlike Pandora, allows subscribers to stream specific songs.

Last month, it was revealed that Spotify had brought in $100 million from investors in a round of fundraising that saw the company’s value pegged at $1 billion. At the time, it was rumored that the Swedish music service was close to sealing a deal with the U.S. record label Warner Music Group. Spotify had prior deals with Sony, EMI and Universal.

Will the masses be falling all over themselves for a Spotify invite later this week? Time will tell.

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