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Sprint today announced that it will start bundling Spotify Premium with its new Framily plans, offering a discount on the service for customers with multiple lines. The music streaming service is part of the company's new Sprint Sound Sessions program and will be available starting May 9th.

Under the new program, all new and existing postpaid customers on a Framily plan are eligible for a free, six-month trial of Spotify Premium that is followed by an 18-month discount on the premium service when the free trial is over. Framily customers will pay $7.99 per month for the paid service or $4.99 monthly if the Framily plan has more than six members. After 24 months, customers will pay the standard price for Spotify Premium, which is currently $9.99 per month.

Subscribers outside the Framily plan will receive a 3-month free trial and incur charges of $9.99 monthly when the free trial ends. All charges for the service will be added to a customer's monthly bill.
"With Spotify, people literally have all of the world's music in their pockets," said Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and CEO. "Spotify and Sprint share a passion for music and technology that makes this partnership a natural fit for both companies -- and the best music deal ever for Sprint customers."
Spotify's Premium tier allows users to listen to Spotify's entire 20 million song library with support for unlimited on-demand listening and custom playlists. The service recently extended its free tier to iPhone users, allowing them to listen to pre-compiled playlists and shuffled music based on a specific artist or song.

This new Sprint partnership is not the first carrier tie-up for the Swedish-based music service. Spotify also bundles its Premium service with cellular plans from Vodafone throughout Europe. As a result, Spotify's growth has been accelerating, and the streaming service may soon eclipse Apple's iTunes downloads as Europe's biggest digital music service in terms of revenue.

Article Link: Sprint Bundles Spotify Premium Into New 'Framily' Plans
 

Nunyabinez

macrumors 68000
Apr 27, 2010
1,758
2,230
Provo, UT
I like all the aggressiveness in the mobile space, but I do have to say that of all the commercials that are out there, I hate the framily ones more than any.
 

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
Seems a good deal. I get Spotify Premium bundled with my Vodafone contract. Makes listening to music on the go (if you have the signal) so much easier.
 

talmy

macrumors 601
Oct 26, 2009
4,726
332
Oregon
How about data caps? Or is this outside the cap? Seems like a good way to run up your bill.
 

ValSalva

macrumors 68040
Jun 26, 2009
3,783
259
Burpelson AFB
Framily???? I never noticed this is the actual name they use for the plan. I'd feel like an idiot asking for that plan out loud :eek: :D
 

RicoRich196

macrumors regular
Apr 28, 2011
102
39
Yes instead of making the service better they bundle in services that don't make the network any more appealing.

After 10 years with Sprint I switched to Tmobile in March and haven't looked back, call quality and data service has been phenomenal in New York. Not a single dropped call and I can download a 25 MB ESPN podcast in 30 seconds vs. the 15 minutes it would take after timing out twice on Sprint.

Good riddance.
 

cmdrmac

macrumors regular
Jun 24, 2012
134
4
IA, USA
Is the Spotify rate per line or is that a flat rate per account?

Example:
  • up to and including 5 lines is an additional $7.99 per month total or is it $7.99 per line additional?
  • 6+ lines is an additional $4.99 per month total or is it $4.99 per line additional?
 

nburwell

macrumors 603
May 6, 2008
5,451
2,365
DE
Too bad Sprint is absolutely awful around my area. I suppose it's not a bad deal if you get decent coverage in the area where you live. Now if only Spotify would do this with AT&T customers.
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,563
6,060
How about data caps? Or is this outside the cap? Seems like a good way to run up your bill.

Audio streaming doesn't do much. I stream Spotify over cellular for about 60 hours a month and it doesn't even eat 1 GB during the month. I used to use iHeartRadio and found the data consumption was similar.
 

BrentD

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2010
305
221
Audio streaming doesn't do much. I stream Spotify over cellular for about 60 hours a month and it doesn't even eat 1 GB during the month. I used to use iHeartRadio and found the data consumption was similar.
Thanks for that. Was always curious. What kind of quality is that? Like good enough for a phone quality, or good enough to stream/plug into your car and it sound good through your car system?
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,563
6,060
Thanks for that. Was always curious. What kind of quality is that? Like good enough for a phone quality, or good enough to stream/plug into your car and it sound good through your car system?

I find it good enough for my car stereo. I am not an audiophile - I know my brother always asks me how I can tolerate the low quality of Spotify free. I can kind of hear the difference, but it definitely isn't something I'd bother paying for.
 

rdlink

macrumors 68040
Nov 10, 2007
3,226
2,435
Out of the Reach of the FBI
It's too bad, Sprint has some really good pricing plans. The problem is their service sucks outside of populated areas, and data is slow. I think Sprint is going to stay one step behind unless they put some money into their infrastructure.

Do you have any idea how many steps forward they're going to have to take in order to be one step behind?
 

Technarchy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2012
6,753
4,927
How about data caps? Or is this outside the cap? Seems like a good way to run up your bill.

I have no local music on any device. It's all cloud running for several hours a day, and the day usage is minimal. One YouTube video is more consuming than 10 songs.

I use it all. Beats, Spotify, Google play music, Pandora.

And this is a great deal. For those in a tri-band LTE market it's worth a look.
 

johnhw

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2009
300
1
It seems bundling Spotify Premium is the trend these days. Here in the Philippines, a carrier partnered with Spotify and bundled Spotify with our tiered data plans. At around 18 bucks a month we get to have 3GB(data)+1GB(Spotify) and Spotify Premium to boot (though Spotify Premium on its own here is already dirt freaking cheap. It's less than 3 DOLLARS. :eek:). It's nice to live in a small Asian country with these deals :D
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,142
19,682
How about data caps? Or is this outside the cap? Seems like a good way to run up your bill.

This is exactly what we don't want: Data access companies (carriers) giving free access to favored platforms. This goes against the principle of net neutrality, and could potentially harm smaller start up companies which don't have the resources to negotiate with the carriers. For instance, if these provisions had been in place in the 90s, we'd likely still be using terrible AOL or maybe even Microsoft services because they would have the market cornered. Smaller companies like Yahoo and Google would be cornered out of the market because they are a startup that didn't have the resources to spend to buy bandwidth. Hell, forget about Spotify. iTunes probably wouldn't have taken off either. Relative to the available bandwidth in the early 2000s, iTunes used quite a large share. The iPod was just getting going. This would have stifled all kinds of innovation. DRM would be even more horrifying and prevalent. I can't even imagine how scary the internet would be today if that had happened.
 
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