Spotify finally goes live in Australia

Australia's glut of music-streaming services is set to get bigger today, as the long-awaited Spotify service finally launches down under.

(Credit: Spotify)

Spotify is a music-streaming service that has, until now, only operated in the northern hemisphere. Today it goes live in Australia, with 16 million tracks accessible via desktop client, mobile and tablet device.

Triple J has teamed up with Spotify locally to create a music curation app that pipes all of the broadcaster's content, including top charts and the annual Triple J Hottest 100, into Spotify.

The Spotify service also supports other third-party apps, like lyric apps, recommendation apps and music-curation apps.

The service runs a free, ad-supported tier that allows access to streamed tracks. Ads take the form of in-client banners and forced audio ads. Spotify Unlimited is $6.99 per month, and sees ads removed from the service, while having offline support and premium sound quality costs $11.99 per month.

The Spotify service had been scheduled to launch earlier in the year, but the launch was pushed back, reportedly to strike deals with local music labels.

Spotify joins the burgeoning ranks of music-streaming services in Australia, which so far includes the likes of JB Hi-Fi Now, Rdio, Sony Music Unlimited, Vevo and Vodafone's partner service, Mia.