From Music Business Worldwide, there is news that Russia will be getting Spotify, the music streaming service, next week. The sources are said to have come from senior music industry sources. Launching Spotify in Russia, comes after the launch of Spotify in India early 2019.

The same sources that gave the information about the new Russian launch also insinuate that there might be a partnership between Russian local business Telco MTS.

Timing this launch has been important because of the current market in Russia. Musically, Russia was one of the top fastest major growth markets. According to the source, the budget for the music market got raised to $174 million as of 2019 meaning that Russia became the 17th largest music market in the world.

Spotify has refused to comment on this particular article, even though back in April CEO Daniel Ek said,“We’ve talked about both Russia and South Korea as the markets we want to be in and nothing has changed there… So while we have nothing to announce at this point, you should know they’re definitely two markets that we are focused on, and all the [financial] guidance that we provided includes the timing of any new market launches, whether it be South Korea, Russia, or anything else.”

The new launch will be competition for the music streaming service VKontakte (Russian Facebook).