Streaming music services are becoming big business, Sky have launched a service called Sky Songs, Google have also launched their own music streaming service. Spotify however remain the big name in this business, at least in Europe and today they have released a mobile client for Symbian based mobile phones after previously releasing clients for both iPhone and Android devices.

The release means that Spotify can now reach a much wider demographic of consumers in the mobile market. Symbian based devices account for about 50% of the smartphone market according to Spotify, which far outnumbers those of either the iPhone or Android. Spotify is now looking to cash in on this fact as it allows them to strike more deals with carriers and provide the client pre-installed on newer handsets when consumers buy a new phone.

Gustav Söderstrom, director of portable solutions at Spotify welcomed the release and said "The launch of Spotify’s Symbian app opens up our mobile music service to potentially millions more music fans across Europe.

Many mid to high-end Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung phone owners might be surprised to realise they can run Spotify on their phones. This takes our mobile music offering to a totally new level."

To use the service you have to be a Spotify Premium subscriber which costs £9.99 per month and for that you get better quality audio, playlist syncing with the desktop client, no adverts and the ability to cache your playlists which allows you to play your music even if you haven't got network coverage in a particular area. It also means that your device won't be constantly pulling data off your carrier's network, thus saving battery life and bandwidth.

Spotify running on various Symbian based Nokia devices

Spotify say that the new client will work on the Nokia 6220 Classic, E71 and 5800 XpressMusic handsets as well as on the the "more popular" Sony Ericsson and Samsung devices such as the recently released Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD.

Spotify have provided a webpage that allows you to check if their Symbian client is compatible with your phone. Simply go to www.m.spotify.com from your phone's browser and the page should automatically detect your phone and and tell you how to install the client - if it's compatible. You can also input the details manually should it fail to detect your phone as it did with my Nokia E63.

Failing the above you also also text Spotify and they will send a message back telling you how to get started with the mobile client if it's compatible with your device. Finally Spotify have provided a list of Symbian devices that are compatible with the client. For your convenience they are listed below:

• Nokia 5230
• Nokia 5320 XpressMusic
• Nokia 5530 XpressMusic
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
• Nokia 6220 classic
• Nokia 6710 Navigator
• Nokia 6720 classic
• Nokia 6730 classic
• Nokia E51
• Nokia E52
• Nokia E63
• Nokia E66
• Nokia E71
• Nokia E75
• Nokia N78
• Nokia N82
• Nokia N85
• Nokia N86 8MP
• Nokia N95
• Nokia N95 8GB
• Nokia N96
• Nokia N97
• Samsung GT-I7110
• Samsung i8910 Omnia HD
• Sony Ericsson Satio