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"We7, the British music streaming service, has announced the launch of a premium subscription package which offers access to over four million songs, directly competing with Spotify's premium offering.\r\n\r\nThe established service has to date offered a free streaming service funded through audio and video advertisements.\r\n\r\nWe7 is now introducing a premium service, charged at \u00A34.99 per month, which removes the advertising elements of the service.  For a 90 day introductory period, the premium service will be available for \u00A33.99.\r\n\r\nSpotify's ad-free premium service launched in 2009 but is currently priced at \u00A39.99 per month in the UK.  However, Spotify's Premium customers are able to access the service on the move using mobile clients available for the iPhone and Android handsets.\r\n\r\nWe7 have also announced a mobile offering for premium customers looking to upgrade to We7 Premium Plus for an additional \u00A35 per month, bringing overall We7 pricing directly into line with Spotify.\r\n\r\nThe We7 apps are yet to be made available, although The Telegraph suggests that the iPhone app is midway through Apple's approval process.  In the meantime, Spotify continues to gain support within the industry.\r\n\r\nThe Universal Music Group recently announced that Spotify was demonstrating a sustainable financial model by providing strong returns to contributing record labels.\r\n\r\nIt is still early days for the music streaming market overall and with Apple likely to enter the fray following its acquisition of Lala in late 2009, it's going to be interesting to see how We7 and Spotify fair in the longer term."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/uk/2010/01/27/spotify-under-pressure-as-we7-launches-premium-service-we7/?awesm=tnw.to_14Ors>