Spotify and Sprint are reportedly teaming up to bundle the music service with some of the carriers plans.
The deal would be similar to AT&T's agreement with Beats Music that was launched earlier this year.
The AT&T Spotify situation is expected to be announced by CEO Dan Hesse during a press conference to be held in New York on April 29. Neither of the two parties involved have said anything directly about the plan.
The major stumbling block to rolling out the plan is receiving the go from the music labels that own the rights to the music. This is expected to come in time for the plan to launch as most labels are interested in having the cellular carriers streaming their music to fans.
Sprint hopes the deal will cement its customers to Sprint, giving them one more reason to not to leave for a competitor at the end of their contract. This would be done by bundling the Spotify service fee with the monthly cellular bill and giving customers some kind of discount on the music service. A Spotify account now costs $9.99 per month.
According to one report, one of the price plans would allow Sprint family plan users to share a Spotify plan between them for a lower fee.
Keeping customers from leaving for another carrier, called churn in the industry, has always been a priority and doing so now is even harder. T-Mobile has spent the last several months bringing out one promotion after another in an attempt to lure away Verizon and Sprint customers. This includes paying the customer's early termination fee so it does not cost them anything to leave their current carriers.
For the carriers, becoming more directly linked to the streaming music industry can only be seen as a plus. Worldwide, 28 million people paid for a music subscription in 2013, up from 20 million in 2012, generating a total of just over $1 billion in revenue for the music provider. This was a 51.3 percent increase compared with the previous year.
"Record companies continue to license many new services, with Beats Music and iTunes Radio recently launching in the U.S. The industry hopes and expects these services to spread quickly around the world," the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.
