Spotify to launch free mobile music service Until now, the free version of Spotify was only available on desktop and laptop computers. Mobile users had to subscribe to Spotify's premium service for £9.99 per month in order to access music on their phones. However, Spotify has been negotiating for over a year with the major record companies - Sony, Universal and Warner - over the rates it will pay them to play songs on the free mobile service, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company has now reached licensing deals with all three companies, and the free mobile service is expected to launch on 11 December. The new ad-supported offering will allow non-paying mobile users to play a limited number of songs on-demand, but will mostly serve up playlists and collections they have previously created, according to reports in WSJ and TechCrunch. This means it will be more akin to custom radio services like Pandora, Rdio and Deezer. Spotify sent out invitations to an event in New York on 11 December earlier this week, promising donuts but revealing nothing about what it planned to announced. The company is under pressure from investors to increase the number of people who subscribe to its premium service. It is thought that the free mobile offering could create new opportunities to upsell customers to paid plans. Spotify has come under fire in recent months for paying relatively low royalty rates, compared to the royalties that musicians receive from traditional CD sales and legal downloads. However, the company has now launched a new website called Spotify Artists, which allows musicians and managers to view Spotify's data relating to their music, with the intention of giving artists more insight into its business model.