Expert Curated X5 App ''Hard & Heavy" explores the world of rock - from Hendrix to Nirvana

X5 Music Group has launched a new Spotify app called Hard & Heavy, a comprehensive tool that explores the heavier chapters of rock, guiding listeners through decades of divine guitar heroes, furious punk rebels, long-haired Seattle grunge rockers and wicked devil worshippers. Like X5's four previous Spotify apps - "Classify," "Bluesify," "Jazzify," and "Jukebox" - "Hard & Heavy" features music handpicked by a team of experts with extensive knowledge and background in the industry, bringing X5's expertise in curation to the fastest growing digital streaming service.

"Hard & Heavy" is set to follow the original "Classify," which launched in 2011 and now boasts nearly 100,000 monthly users and 390,000+ app installs. Similarly, "Bluesify" and "Jazzify," which launched last fall, have helped completely new audiences discover blues and jazz, increasing overall streams and therefore revenue for this content across the board. According to Billboard, the "blues browser is so helpful, Spotify should come bundled with tuition at music academies." "Jukebox," which launched this year and helps users browse the greatest American Oldies artists, is X5's fastest growing app, now boasting nearly 80,000 monthly users and continued exponential growth since its release.

"Hard & Heavy" allows users to browse through 4,000+ of the greatest albums in rock from 1970 to the present, featuring customized playlists in subgenres like classic rock, hair metal, grunge, death metal, prog rock, nu metal, punk, and grindcore, among others. It offers biographical notes on each of the featured artists, as well as suggestions for related artists ranging from A to ZZ Top.

Check out "Hard & Heavy" here - http://open.spotify.com/app/hardandheavy

ABOUT X5 MUSIC GROUP

X5 Music Group (http://www.x5musicgroup.com), headquartered in Sweden, is a leader in digital music, having pioneered a new sales and promotion model that has met with considerable international success. X5, the #2 digital classical label in the US, recently launched a major expansion in the US with an office headquartered in the Empire State Building.

ABOUT SPOTIFY

Spotify is an award-winning digital music service that gives you on-demand access to over 20 million tracks. Our dream is to make all the world's music available instantly to everyone, wherever and whenever you want it. Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage and share music with your friends, while making sure that artists get a fair deal.

Spotify is now available in 56 markets globally with more than 40 million active users, and over 10 million paying subscribers.

Since its launch in Sweden in 2008, Spotify has driven more than US$1bn to rights holders. Spotify is now the second biggest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe, and the biggest and most successful music streaming service of its kind globally.

* Number of tracks licensed globally. Catalogue size varies per market and can also change over time.

www.spotify.com