Spotify reportedly plans to match Apple Music with competitive pricing

Earlier today, Apple finally announced its much speculated music streaming service named simply, **Apple Music** , at the WWDC conference. Apple Music will be priced at $9.99 (approx Rs 640) per month and to get users hooked on to it, Apple Music will be free for the first three months. For a family plan for up to 6 accounts Apple Music will cost $14.99 (approx Rs 960). The service will be launched in over 100 countries by June 30 and will be coming to Android operating system as well. This is Apple’s first foray into music streaming, a landscape that is dominated by incumbents such as Spotify and many others. According to a report by The Verge, Spotify now has plans to offer competitive pricing in a hope to match Apple’s offering. Jonathan Price, Spotify’s global head of communications and public policy said that, “We already have similar family pricing in some markets and we expect to offer competitive pricing everywhere in the near future.” He also pointed out that in Sweden, Spotify already charges roughly $20 a month for a family of five. Also, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek does not seem impressed with Apple’s new music service. According to a report by Mashable, Daniel Ek tweeted a two-word reaction which was, “Oh ok.” Eventually, he deleted the tweet. The report added that the CEO also retweeted a tweet that criticized Apple’s new News app as it read: “Apple grasping for straws presenting their native news app ’look at the typography’ ‘we have a fun animation’. Flipboard, anyone?”