Mfarhanonline Social Media News: For months, we’ve been hearing rumors that Spotify had raised $100 million in funding from DST, Kleiner Perkins and Accel. Now it seems that round has finally closed, giving the music subscription service a $1 billion valuation. All Things Digital is reporting that with this influx of cash, the service can likely launch in the U.S. this summer. Spotify already reportedly signed licensing deals with UMG, EMI and Sony, and is in talks with Warner Music Group. “We’re signing the remaining deals as I speak,” Jonathan Forster, general manager of Europe and global vice president of ad sales at Spotify, said at a conference in London this week. Still, Forster told Silicon Valley Watcher that the service won’t launch stateside before July 5. So why has it been taking so long to bring Spotify to the States? The U.S. record companies were reportedly not overly enthusiastic about Spotify's "freemium" business model, where the company gives away ad-supported music in hopes of signing paying subscribers to its ad-free version. That premium service lets users choose and replay their music. Still, Spotify cut back on free music in May, requiring users to pay for deeper access, so the company is clearly open to compromise. It seems rumors have been swirling about Spotify nonstop lately, with folks speculating that it would partner with Google for a cloud-based music service (it didn’t) and that Facebook is interested in teaming up (it’s probably not). This recent report can’t be confirmed with Spotify because the company never comments on such deals, but it doesn’t seem out of the question. All four major labels recently signed licensing deals with Apple for its iTunes to the Cloud and iTunes Match services , which seems to indicate that the majors are opening up to the ways of the d! igital a ge (iTunes in the Cloud is free, and iTunes Match costs around $25 per year). Still, Apple has a lot more clout than Spotify. It’s been slow going when it comes to bringing Spotify to the U.S., and with plenty of longstanding competitors already in the ring, we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of impact it makes if/when it arrives. More About: funding , music , spotify For more Media coverage: Follow Mfarhanonline Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Media channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
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