Sprint news: 6 free months of Spotify Premium, LTE covering 225M people, Harman Kardon partnership

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Sprint held a ‘Hear It For Yourself’ media event earlier today that saw the announcement of a Harmon Kardon version of the HTC One M8 handset.

As part of the presentation for select members of the press, executives with the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier have said that all new and existing postpaid customers on Sprint’s ‘Framily’ plan will get six free months of Spotify Premium, iPhone owners included.

Android and Windows 8/8.1 smartphone owners are eligible for this offer, too.

Premium Spotify subscriptions start at ten bucks per month, which buys you higher-quality unlimited streaming with no advertising…

According to Sprint, non-Framily plans can enjoy Spotify free for three months.

The carrier has said that these 3 and 6-month offers will launch for all postpaid customers starting May 2, across all channels on all compatible Sprint postpaid devices. Again, iPhones are eligible for this Spotify Premium deal.

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After the free promotional period, Spotify subscriptions will be available to Sprint’s subscribers at a discounted rate. Specifically, ‘Framily’ members can opt-in to pay a monthly price of $7.99 for 1-5 users or $4.99 for 6-10 users, for 18 months.

These reduced prices are not permanent: after 24 months, Sprint customers will need to pay the standard Spotify Premium subscription of $9.99 per month.

Sprint HTC M8 with Karman-Kardon

Sprint also unveiled the exclusive Harman/Kardon edition of the HTC One M8, pictured above. The handset has been designed for music lovers and features an FM radio, Sprint Sound Sessions (basically some exclusive music) and other music-focused features.

More importantly, it supports a 128GB microSD card, ships with a $149 pair of Harman/Kardon earbuds and includes features that “restore” and “rebuild” sound quality lost during audio compression, allowing for “richer, deeper and clearer sound quality for compressed digital music.”

The new M8 launches in stores on May 9 and online starting May 2, costing $28.32 a month on Sprint’s two-year with $0 down.

Sprint HTC M8 with Karman-Kardon 002

And in network news, the carrier said that that 4G LTE service is now available in an additional 41 U.S. cities, now blanketing 225 million people with LTE signal. Sprint plans to cover 250 million with LTE by mid-year.

The company claims its enhanced Sprint Spark LTE service is capable of delivering a theoretical peak wireless speeds of 60Mbps. Sprint Spark is available in six new U.S. cities and is expected to cover one hundred million people by the end of 2014.

If you’re a numbers guy, you may want to dive into Sprint’s March quarter earnings.