Spotify Lands EMI Deal, Closes In On U.S. Launch

On the heels of a recent agreement with Sony Music, the London-headquartered music startup Spotify has now inked a licensing deal with EMI, according to a report on CNET.

Word of Spotify’s sleek and uber-functional music service first started perking up ears on this side of the pond a few years ago, but the U.S. has been a hard nut to crack for the company, which was founded in Stockholm in 2006. While other streaming services like Rdio popped up in 2010 – scoring licensing agreements with all four major labels – Spotify has hit obstacle after obstacle, including when a key developer left Spotify for Facebook last August.

With Sony and EMI in the bag, though, Spotify will now only need to land similar deals with Universal and Warner to have all four major labels in their court – and EMI’s acceptance of Spotify’s recent terms should help grease the wheels. (EMI controls the catalogs, or partial catalogs, of artists like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, and Katy Perry.)

In related undertakings, Sony’s new Music Unlimited, which has been unveiled in several European markets, looks to launch in the States by the end of the first quarter. In addition to Music Unlimited, Spotify will have to face the country’s largest Internet radio station, Pandora, which has recently filed for a $100 million initial public offering. And, yet still, if Spotify plans to utilize Apple’s App Store and devices like the iPhone and iPad for their service, they’ll have to weigh Apple’s new subscription terms, where Apple will take 30 percent of revenue on new subscribers.