The European music service’s U.S. debut has been a work in progress for over two years now. While recently made upgrades and rumored partnerships have showed promise, Spotify’s headway in securing licensing deals is making its U.S. debut even more likely.
The Wall Street Jounal’s All Things Digital is reporting that Spotify has secured a licensing deal with Universal Music. This now leaves only one of the four major labels left to sign on (with EMI and Sony already having signed deals with Spotify earlier this year). As Digital Music News points out, Warner Music Group (who have been very resistant) are still somewhat of a wild card since being sold to Len Blavatnik. While it’s likely that WMG will eventually sign, it’s uncertain as to how soon they will.
Nonetheless, signing one of the largest music labels is a big hurdle they’ve now passed. This news definitely gives hope that Spotify could secure deals with all four labels and launch in the States by the end of the year. Now that they’re nearly done with handling labels, they might want to start prepping themselves against one particular new competitor.
