It its favor, it is the one mainstream streaming service in Japan that has a free-tier option for users. That goes some way to explaining why it has taken so long for the Swedish company to secure deals with record labels, but it could be a factor that helps its service gain some momentum in the country among users who are not used to paying for digital music consumption.

I wonder how this free tier on Spotify will affect Apple Music. Overall, Spotify has a solid reputation in the streaming business, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out in terms of subscriptions.