Spotify enlists Boku for carrier billing in Germany and Italy

This is an expansion of Boku’s existing global partnership with Spotify that first launched in the United Kingdom and includes every major carrier in Germany and one of the leading Italian mobile operators. With these new agreements, nearly 90 million mobile subscribers across these markets will be able to purchase Spotify Premium subscriptions using their mobile phone number without the need for a credit card.

Spotify gains the ability to provide a direct carrier billing option in these markets to easily acquire customers who find using their mobile phone number for PC and mobile web-based purchases to be the most secure and seamless way to pay.

“Our partnerships with carriers connecting to Spotify in the UK have been a phenomenal success both in terms of revenue and new subscriber acquisition. So much so that, in the UK, the default payment method for new Spotify users has changed from credit card to carrier billing,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku. “These new carrier agreements across Europe not only speaks 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.”

Spotify Premium offers users an ad-free subscription service, which enables users to listen to music wherever and whenever they are – even when offline. Spotify users simply enter their mobile phone number to start a free trial of Spotify Premium and when the free trial expires (30 days) the user is billed directly to their phone bill. Spotify begins charging users for Premium on the first day following the end of the trial, on a recurring monthly basis. Users can easily cancel their subscription at any time via text message.

Spotify currently boasts more than 75 million active users, and 30 million paid subscribers across more than 50 countries worldwide.