Today, The Times and Sunday Times announce a strategic partnership with Spotify that will offer - from Sunday February 9, 2014 – a year’s free Spotify Premium to annual subscribers of The Times and Sunday Times’ Digital and Ultimate Packs.

This exclusive offer equates to a saving of £119.98 and gives unlimited access to a catalogue of more than 20 million songs and other audio content. This is the first time that Spotify has entered into a partnership of this kind with a media owner anywhere in the world. The offer will be available to new and existing subscribers who upgrade to the 12-month Times and Sunday Times’ Digital pack (£6 per week) or Ultimate Pack (£8 per week).

The offer will be available to redeem from this Sunday at www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/spotify Terms and conditions apply.

Spotify Premium users can enjoy instant, on-demand access to more than 20 million songs, wherever and whenever they want; whether it be via a computer, laptop, mobile, tablet or TV. They can discover new music, create and share their own playlists, browse friends’ playlists, follow their favourite artists and celebrities and enjoy Spotify radio. Spotify Premium also lets users ‘sync’ their music to a mobile device to enjoy when they are offline e.g. on a flight or underground. With over 24 million active users in 55 countries, Spotify is the largest and most successful music streaming service of its kind.

Katie Vanneck-Smith, Chief Marketing Officer of News UK, said: “Music is one of the top passions of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times and it is our aim to provide new services to our membership base to add value to their subscription. We also want to offer great benefits to potential new customers to encourage them to join our 360,000 strong membership base.

“We look forward to enhancing our music content and creating exclusive experiences through this exciting partnership with Spotify. It is great to be working with a like-minded brand that also offers premium paid-for content.”

Peter de Bruin, Head of Media Partnerships at Spotify, commented: “Spotify and The Times and Sunday Times both share a passion for delivering the highest quality content and experiences to our digitally-savvy, culturally-engaged audiences. We think that the two titles and Spotify make a perfect partnership and we look forward to welcoming many more subscribers to enjoy a whole world of music on Spotify.”

To celebrate the start of the Spotify partnership, The Times and The Sunday Times are running a week-long music special. The Sunday Times Culture section kicks the special off with exclusive playlists from artists, writers, designers and a certain Wimbledon champion. The campaign will be supported by social media activity using #TimesSpotify

The partnership between the titles and Spotify will evolve into the curation of bespoke content and experiences. All subscribers to the Times and the Sunday Times automatically join the Times+ membership and rewards programme - the first newspaper loyalty programme in the UK. Going forward, the two titles and Spotify will be inviting Times+ members to attend bespoke music events. Designed as a series of intimate, acoustic sessions with time for Q&As, the events will allow music fans to get up-close and personal to their favourite artists.

Ends