Spotify Adds Led Zeppelin, and Turns Focus to Mobile

With competition growing in the streaming music market, Spotify announced a series of changes meant to entice new customers and extend its digital footprint farther around the world.

At a news conference in Manhattan that was broadcast online, Daniel Ek, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said the company was increasing the amount of free music it makes available on mobile devices, opening in 20 emerging markets and adding the music of Led Zeppelin.

Spotify has fascinated those in the tech world practically since it began in Sweden in 2008, both for its sleek design and ambitious business model. Positioning itself as a legal alternative to piracy, the service makes music available free with advertising, or for monthly subscriptions of about $5 to $10, which eliminate the ads and add perks like access through mobile devices. Still, the relative lack of free music available on mobile phones has been seen as an impediment to Spotify’s growth.

“The world has changed a lot since we launched,” Mr. Ek said in an interview after the news conference. “More than half of all users are now signing up straight to mobile, and there is a huge correlation between playing on mobile and getting people to convert.”

Spotify will now make on-demand music — picking specific songs to listen to — available free on tablet computers. On mobile phones, free users can listen in shuffle mode to their playlists and to songs by any artist on the service. (Paying users, of course, can listen without the shuffling.)

Spotify also announced that it was opening in 20 new countries, mostly in Latin America and Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria, Colombia, Guatemala and Paraguay. The company now operates in 55 markets around the world. But Spotify is about to face major competition from YouTube and Beats Music, which are expected to introduce subscription services early next year.

Spotify’s exclusive deal with Led Zeppelin, which has sold more than 300 million albums around the world, was notable because the band had refused to license its music to streaming services.

Led Zeppelin’s representatives have been in negotiations with various streaming services since at least January. Spotify, which has more than six million paying subscribers, is believed to have beaten out smaller competitors like Rdio and Rhapsody.

Among the few major acts still absent from on-demand streaming services like Spotify are AC/DC, Tool, Garth Brooks and the Beatles.