Streaming giant may make free streaming available on mobiles in the new year.

Following its recent moves to better clarify how it pays musicians, details have emerged of a possible move by Spotify to add free music to its mobile versions. The move would put the Swedish company directly up against Apple’s iTunes Radio.

A press event scheduled for December 11 is expected to have more details. Currently mobile users can only use Spotify if they are paying subscribers, while desktop users can make use of the ad-supported free version. Early details gleaned from the Wall Street Journal indicate that Spotify has reached licensing deals with “three global music companies to use their recordings on the new service”, leaving some to wonder what this means for independent labels. Additional details include limitations to the amount of songs you can play on demand. Most likely the idea here is to push people to the paying service for more freedom, much like Rdio and Deezer already do.

iTunes Radio is currently only available in the US, as will Spotify’s free mobile version on launch, but is expected to go global in 2014. [via The Guardian]

For more on all this head to ReadWrite for an excellent article that looks at just how much of a bubble the so-called streaming era might be.