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Spotify to bundle Premium service with Hulu

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Logos from Hulu, left, and Spotify on display. Spotify said that subscribers to its Premium music-streaming service will be able to bundle it with Hulu’s limited-commercial TV plan for $12.99 a month. The deal is similar to an offering Spotify made to students beginning last fall.

It may not be a buy-one-get-one-free deal, but an offering from Spotify and Hulu comes pretty close.

On Tuesday, Spotify said that subscribers to its Premium music-streaming service will be able to bundle it with Hulu’s limited-commercial TV plan for $12.99 a month. The deal is similar to an offering Spotify made to students beginning last fall.

Currently, Spotify Premium costs subscribers $9.99 a month, while Hulu’s limited-commercial plan costs $7.99 a month. So, in other words, if you subscribe to Spotify Premium, you can add Hulu to the mix for $3 a month and end up paying less than you would by subscribing to both services separately. Spotify is also looking to sweeten the deal by giving subscribers Hulu for 99 cents a month for the first three months of their subscriptions before raising the price.

The deal will initially be offered to Spotify’s current 71 million Premium subscribers, and new subscribers to the service. Spotify intends to expand the Hulu bundle to the rest of its customers this summer.

It’s no secret why Spotify and Hulu would want to work together. Spotify has the largest base of paid music-streaming subscribers, and Hulu has raised its game in terms of original TV programs with the likes of “The Looming Tower” and the Emmy-Award-winning “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which will launch its second season later this month.

Bundling such services is also seen as a way of attracting more listeners and viewers, and an effort to fend off competition from the likes of Amazon, which offers its Prime Music and Amazon Music unlimited music streaming services to its Prime Video subscribers. Apple also has begun dipping its toe into the original TV market and is believed to be working on soon launching its own TV-subscription offering that will be included with its Apple Music service.

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