Spotify aims for Q3 U.S. launch

Spotify has over 7 million users in Europe, and now the Stockholm-based online music service is setting its sites on the U.S. mobile market alongside offerings from the likes of Pandora, Slacker and Grooveshark.

Reports suggest that the streaming music provider is aiming to bring its service to the U.S. early in the second half of this year.

Details are being kept under wraps, but Bloomberg has revealed that Spotify is currently negotiating with Internet and mobile providers in the U.S. Bloomberg is also reporting that Spotify is discussing the possibility of bringing an app to BlackBerry and Palm webOS smartphones.

Of course, licensing deals with record labels are key to the survival of services like Spotify, and in this respect the company has one major advantage: partial ownership was given to several major record labels in return for access to their catalogs.

Like other services, Spotfiy is free with ad support and there is also an ad-free "Premium" option that runs around $14.50 per month -- a figure that is considerably more expensive than similar offerings from U.S. competition.

Presumably, this figure might need to be changed to stay competitive in the states, but Spotify is also in negotiations for additional licensing deals that might help the company make headway in an already crowded market.