A partnership between carrier billing provider Boku and digital music service Spotify will allow consumers in Germany and Italy to subscribe to Spotify using their mobile phone numbers.
The arrangement, which expands upon Boku's existing partnership with Spotfiy in the U.K. market, will include Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile in Germany and Hutchinson 3G in Italy as participating mobile operators.
“These new carrier agreements across Europe not only speak to the global appeal of Spotify’s streaming music service, but also the growing appeal of carrier billing for Europeans as a payment method that can now be implemented as a stored payment method in the exact same manner as a credit card,” Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku, said in an April 29 press release.
The new agreements will provide nearly 100 million mobile subscribers the option to purchase Spotify Premium subscriptions using their mobile number instead of a credit card. San Francisco-based Boku is hoping the payment option will catch on in Germany and Italy the way it has through Spotify in the U.K.
“Our partnerships with carriers connecting to Spotify in the UK have been a phenomenal success both in terms of revenue and new subscriber acquisition," Prideaux said. "So much so that, in the UK, the default payment method for new Spotify users has changed from credit card to carrier billing.”
Spotify currently serves more than 75 million active users and 30 million paid subscribers across more than 50 countries worldwide.
Boku has more than 260 carrier connections, reaching four billion mobile subscribers worldwide.
Though it has been widely reported that Boku is powering Apple's carrier billing of
