Apple Approves Spotify Music Subscription Application for iPhone

Last month, we noted that popular Swedish music subscription service Spotify had submitted an iPhone application to Apple for inclusion in the company's App Store. At the time, there was some question as to whether Apple would approve a subscription-based music application that would appear to directly compete with Apple's own iTunes music offerings.

UK news site paidContent:UK reports that Apple has just now approved Spotify, which should be appearing in the App Store shortly.

Apple's Cupertino spokesperson tells us it has approved the iPhone app from Spotify, the music service that many people believe represents a threat to iTunes: "The current status as of right now is it's been approved and we hope to add the app to the more than 65,000 apps on the app store very soon. We've been in constant communication working with the developer and have already notified Spotify that the app will be in the app store very soon."

Spotify is currently only available in select European countries, a number of which require invitations in order to access the company's ad-supported service. Spotify also offers an ad-free premium service, priced at 9.99 per month in the UK, and the company will reportedly also offer an annual subscription price for service through the free iPhone application. The New York Times has reported that Spotify is scheduled to become available in the U.S. by the end of 2009.