AT&T Adds Spotify Premium as Free Option on Priciest Wireless Tier

By Todd Spangler

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Spotify, looking for a new avenue of subscriber growth, is teaming with on bundling and promotional offers for the wireless carrier’s customers.

Starting Tuesday (Aug. 6), customers of AT&T’s Unlimited &More Premium plan — its most expensive tier — can select a Premium subscription from among seven premium entertainment options, for no extra charge. The Unlimited &More Premium plans start at $80 monthly per line (with discounts for additional lines).

Under the offer, existing Spotify Premium subscribers who have AT&T’s Unlimited &More Premium plan (or sign up for it) will be able to maintain their current Spotify account, and opt to receive the service free through the entertainment-bundle offer. Customers on the AT&T plan also can select WarnerMedia’s HBO, Cinemax or VRV, or Showtime, Starz or Pandora as their free entertainment option.

In addition, AT&T will offer select wireless customers on other tiers a six-month free trial of Spotify Premium, after which they will have the option to subscribe for $9.99 per month. The telco positioned the pact as the beginning of an “ongoing collaboration” with Spotify. “It’s another way we are working to deliver more value to AT&T customers with unlimited wireless and endless entertainment,” said Mitch Farber, VP of consumer marketing for AT&T Mobility & Entertainment.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Typically under such pacts, the distribution partner (i.e. AT&T) pays a per-subscriber bounty to the service provider (i.e. Spotify) for every customer that takes advantage of the bundle offer.

For the second quarter of 2019, Spotify added 8 million paying customers — fewer than expected — to reach around 108 million worldwide. Overall, including free, ad-supported accounts, Spotify counted 232 million monthly active users as of the end of June.

Spotify has previously run similar bundle offers with Hulu . Under their most recent partnership this spring, all Spotify Premium users in the U.S. were eligible to get access to Hulu’s streaming video plan with ads for no extra cost (a deal that ended in June).

“We continue to build relationships with world-class partners like AT&T to bring our Spotify Premium product to new audiences in the U.S. and across the globe,” Marc Hazan, Spotify’s VP of premium partnerships, said in a statement.