This week started off with a lot of excitement around Spotify for Symbian but that wasn’t the only big launch this week.

Early Monday morning Telia, Sweden’s largest mobile operator and ISP, began including Spotify Premium in a large number of their mobile and internet offerings. Signing up with Telia is a great way to get premium, you won’t need to worry about going over any data limits when using Spotify and rather than paying for two services, you get Spotify Premium conveniently added to your monthly bill with Telia. Best of all, if you sign up before Christmas you’ll get Spotify Premium for free until Easter!

You can purchase these packages online or in any one of the hundreds of retail locations in Sweden. (Our local Telia shop down the street is pictured above).

So if you’ve been looking for that perfect Christmas gift for someone close, or want to get a new mobile yourself, head over to your local Telia shop and include Spotify in your holidays.

This update went live on Saturday morning but I haven’t had a chance to post it until now. We added 5,741 albums and singles to the catalogue, in total 72,728 new tracks are now available.

I also wanted to let you know that updates to our catalogue are not as frequent as they usually are as we’re having some technical issues adding new music. We’re working hard to get back to our regular schedule of updates and bring you lots of great new releases and I’ll be sure to post as soon as the next update is available.

A few highlights includes:

• Them Crooked Vultures by Them Crooked Vultures
• Absolute Greatest by Queen
• Echo by Leona Lewis
• The Fall by Norah Jones

Have a look at the Google doc for the full listing of all the releases. As with every update not all albums listed may be available in your country and some tracks previously available may no longer be playable due to regional restrictions.

Let us know what gems you find in this update.

Today we’re delighted to announce the launch of Spotify for Symbian. Symbian is the operating system used by a number of smartphones including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung.

Today’s release means that Spotify Mobile is now available on millions more phones, such as the Nokia 6220 Classic, E71 and 5800 XpressMusic models for all our Spotify Premium users. The application will also run on some of the more popular Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones, such as the Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD and Sony Ericsson Satio. Symbian is our third launch for Spotify Mobile, along with previously released iPhone and Android versions.

So how do you find out if your phone can run Spotify? Visit www.spotify.com from your mobile browser and find out if your phone is supported. Alternatively, enter your phone number in the Spotify Mobile page. We’ll send you instructions via SMS on how to get started with Spotify Mobile.

We also list all supported devices on our Symbian page, so if you’re looking to buy a new phone and want to know which ones we support you can find them there.

We hope everyone enjoys this early Christmas present!

French Summary: Nous sommes très contents de vous annoncer le lancement de Spotify sur Symbian. Symbian est le système d’exploitation utilisé par un grand nombre de téléphones mobiles Nokia, Sony Ericsson et Samsung. En plus des iPhones et mobiles Android, vous pouvez maintenant installer Spotify Mobile sur votre Nokia 6220 Classics, Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD, Sony Ericsson Satio…et des dizaines d’autres.

Pour savoir si votre mobile est compatible avec l’application Spotify, rendez-vous sur la page Spotify Mobile.

Update: Added official support for Nokia N97 Mini and Nokia 5630 XpressMusic.

Strand in Stockholm is celebrating it’s one year anniversary later this year and they are throwing a series of concerts to celebrate. We have five pairs of tickets to each show for Spotify Premium subscribers in Sweden. The shows are:

• Maia Hirasawa + Jonna Lee on November 24th
• The Raveonettes on November 30th
• Asha Ali on December 9th

If you’re interested in attending one of the events leave a comment on the blog along with the show you want to attend and we’ll pick winners later this week. The shows are all 18+.

A little heads up about a promotion currently running with Mexican musical duo Rodrigo y Gabriela. In support of their great new album, 11:11, they are handing out a free download on 7Digital in the UK and a big discount on the full album. So whether you’re a long time fan or have never heard them before, head over to the download page and grab a copy of the track for yourself.

A couple of pre-releases today to let you know about - first one for subscribers in Finland is Echo from English R&B singer–songwriter Leona Lewis. The former X Factor winner teams up with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Ryan Tedder for her second studio album.

The second pre-release is from the Swedish hip-hop artists Maskinen. Their debut album Boys II Men is out later this month but Spotify Premium subscribers in Sweden, Norway and Finland can listen to it starting today.

Another update to our music catalogue today. We added 5,453 albums and singles to the catalogue, in total 63,270 new tracks are now available.

A few highlights includes:

• Master Machine by Theendisthebeginning
• I Often Dream of Trains in New York by Robyn Hitchcock

Have a look at the Google doc for the full listing of all the releases. As with every update not all albums listed may be available in your country and some tracks previously available may no longer be playable due to regional restrictions.

Let us know what gems you find in this update.

We have second group of tickets to hand out today, this time for Swedish metal band Avatar. They’ll be performing four shows and we have a pair of tickets to each shows. The locations and dates for the shows are:

• Linköping – Atmosfär on November 26th
• Göteborg – Brew House on November 27th
• Örebro – Club 700 on November 28h
• Stockholm – Klubben/Fryshuset on December 4th

If you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber and want to attend one of the shows leave a comment on the blog and let us know which show you want to attend and we’ll contact the winners by email later this week.

We’ve got 15 pairs of tickets for Spotify Premium subscribers to see Melissa Horn in concert tomorrow, November 11th, at Göta Lejon in Stockholm. If you’re interested in going please let a comment on the blog and we’ll mail the winners first thing tomorrow morning and let you know you’ve won.

Just wanted to quickly follow-up on our previously announced deal with 3 UK.

As of today you can now visit their webstore or your local 3 retail store and pick up a new HTC Hero phone and get a Spotify Premium subscription included.