After months of rumors, at least some US residents will finally be able to try out the Spotify music streaming service tomorrow. As reported by News.com, the company has confirmed that the US version of the service, which has millions of users in Europe, will launch on Thursday morning at exactly 8 am Eastern time.
The launch won"t be for everybody in the US, however. Spotify is planning a soft launch on Thursday by making it an invite only event with more users invited in the months to come. Users will have to choose from three options. One will be free to listen to but will be supported by ads and also will have a time limit of 20 hours a month. Spotify will also have paid subscription plans. One is $5 a month for unlimited listening but cannot be accessed via mobile devices. The top tier is $10 a month and offers unlimited listening and access to mobile devices.
Spotify, based in Sweden, launched in Europe in 2008 and has over 10 million users. About 1 million of those users have access the service via the paid subscription tiers. Spotify gives its users access to listen to 15 million music tracks. Here in the US, it will be competing with a number of other music subscription services including Pandora. Of course, the 800 pound gorilla in the room is Apple, who plans to launch its iCloud streaming music service for its iOS devices and others sometime this fall.
Update: We can now confirm that Spotify has launched.