If rumours of a potential deal between Facebook and Spotify are true then it’s easy to see the attractions on both sides.

Facebook gets to bolt on a ready-made populist music service. Spotify suddenly has access to a major global platform as an incentive to tip the Majors into allowing it into the US. One issue that could arise is that the Majors seem keen to ensure that any US version of the service is paid for.

However, Facebook users will expect the service to be free – after all they don’t have to pay for anything else on Facebook. They are though, used to seeing adverts. Spotify of course became successful very quickly by launching primarily as a free service (with adverts).

Spotify has seemingly been torn between keeping the free element and migrating the service to a premium one – it can’t really afford the Major’s advances/guarantees and royalties unless it does. On the other hand a deal with Facebook could turn that logic on its head, and Spotify may argue that if it is going to deliver potential access to hundreds of millions of users then the free model is the way to go.

In response to article here (techland.time.com)