Soon to be Spotify in the U.S.

Spotify, the subscription digital music service is due to launch in the U.S next week, putting an end to all the long running anticipation.

After launching a new web page saying the service would "soon be landing on U.S. shores" and allowing users to sign up to be notified when the service is available here.

As of Friday, Spotify had agreements in place that would let it offer U.S. users music from three of the four major label groups: Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music and EMI Group Ltd. Pricing for the Spotify service in the U.S. has not yet been revealed.

In the UK, Spotify charges £4.99 ($8) a month for PC subscriptions and £9.99 for mobile subscriptions. Spotify's Premium subscription in the U.K. costs £9.99 ($16) a month and allows users to play an unlimited amount of music, without advertising, on a computer or mobile. Spotify Unlimited costs £4.99 ($8) a month to play tracks through a computer, with no time limit.

Already available in Europe, Spotify has secured 10 million subscribers overseas, all of whom have access to a vast catalogue of more than 13 million songs for free - with ads - or pay a monthly fee to skip the ads.

However Spotify's success in the U.S is questionable due to stiff competition from Google Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. All have announced or started online music services of their own in recent months, potentially stealing Spotify's thunder.

Spotify offers up to 10 free hours of on-demand music per month before you have to pay. As the company hasn't revealed what the free tier will look like in the U.S and given the fact that people are spending less money on music each year, expecting people to suddenly start paying for music requires high hopefulness.