Subscribers to the Times and Sunday Times will be offered a free year's membership to Spotify Premium as part of the latest deal struck by News UK to enhance its paywall offering.
Under the exclusive deal, which Spotify said is the first it has done of this nature with any media owner, the newspaper publisher is offering a free year's membership to Spotify Premium, the music service's £9.99 a month service, as part of the package available to subscribers to its two quality titles.
The offer will be available to new and existing subscribers to the 12-month Times and Sunday Times digital pack, charged at £6 a week, and the Ultimate Pack of seven days of newspapers, as well as digital access (£8 a week).
The deal aims to boost the uptake of the Times and Sunday Times' 153,000-strong digital subscription base – and 207,000 print subscribers – as well as push more consumers onto its top-priced packages to increase revenue from its paywall model.
"Music is one of the top passions of readers of the Times and the Sunday Times and it is our aim to provide new services to our membership base to add value to their subscription," said Katie Vanneck-Smith, chief marketing officer at parent company News UK. "It is great to be working with a like-minded brand that also offers premium paid-for content."
A wider partnership, which will include a week-long music special starting in this weekend's Sunday Times Culture section, will see the "curation of bespoke content and experiences", such as special music events.
Peter de Bruin, head of media partnerships at Spotify, said there was an affinity between the two companies' "digitally-savvy, culturally-engaged audiences".
Spotify Premium is the music service's £9.99 a month package giving access to 20 million songs on multiple devices.
The partnership is the latest move by News UK to attempt to drive its subscription strategy.
Last week the Sun struck a deal with mobile operator O2 to offer its 4G customers content including Premier League football goal clips.
For News UK the deal allows it to tap O2's 23 million customer base – it is the second largest mobile network in the UK – to drive membership of its Sun+ digital subscription service.
Under the terms of the deal, O2 will offer new 4G customers, and existing customers who upgrade, a choice of two 4G packages that will include the Sun+ service.
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