Spotify to enter "uninteresting" Belgian market this summer

The online music streaming service Spotify will finally come to Belgium, Belgian media reports said recently. The Swedish company offers a vast database of music in various countries, but so far not in Belgium. Last April, Spotify toldBelgian news agencies that they had no interest in providing their services in Belgium, because the Belgian market in not attractive to them.

The number of Belgian internet users is low in absolute terms, given the small size of the country. In addition, the market is heavily fragmented by the trilingual population. The Dutch speaking music fans could easily turn to music services from The Netherlands and, similarly, German speakers and Francophone Belgians can simply connect to a service in their own language.

Spotify's conclusion that Belgium is a relatively uninteresting market is probably also true for other providers of online services. This could mean that the introduction of innovative internet services could lag behind in Belgium.

Nonetheless, according to several Belgian newspapers, Spotify is now in the final stage of negotiations with Belgacom and Telenet to decide which provider could offer Spotify exclusively. Spotify is said to already have reached an agreement with the Belgian collective copyright management organization Sabam. Sabam has always been welcoming towards Spotify, as Belgian artists were so far a little left out. It is disadvantageous to local artists that there are few attractive options for legally downloading their music.

The details around the launch of Spotify in Belgium are not yet known, we will still have to be patient.

Reference: De Morgen