Virgin America Adds Spotify and New York Times as Latest Perks in In-Flight Wi-Fi Race

After the launch of its high-speed ViaSat InFlight Wi-Fi connection and the announcement of Netflix streaming service onboard, Virgin America has raised the stakes once again by announcing a partnership with Spotify and New York Times, which will offer the airline’s passengers a wider variety of tunes and news to enjoy onboard.

Spotify is offering free streaming of its entire catalogue of over 30 million songs onboard Virgin America’s ViaSat InFlight connected aircraft, and The New York Times offers a curated collection of daily NYTimes.com news through March 2, 2016.

Virgin America is Spotify’s first U.S. airline partner to offer all Spotify users streaming access to its entire music catalogue, of over 30 million songs. Spotify also provided “song pools,” based on hundreds of millions of playlists, to help Virgin America curate over 60 city-inspired music “Mood Lists” linked to the airline’s destinations. These include: New York’s “Empire State of Mind”, and Chicago’s “Welcome to the Windy City,” with the full list on the airline’s website virginamerica.com/spotify or available on Spotify through the “#SpotifyOnboard” playlist.

New Spotify users can enjoy the music catalog free of charge, or take advantage of a free Spotify Premium 30-day trial.

The New York Times offers curated content, including breaking news from Business, Travel, Technology and the ‘Most Viewed’ news of the day. The news service can be read on any device connected on ViaSat WiFi-equipped aircraft flying on U.S. mainland flights. The New York Times is also offering Virgin America passengers a free 30-day New York Times All Digital Access subscription, which can be used both in the air and on the ground.

“Virgin America has always been about providing guests with the largest breadth of entertainment and more control over their in-flight experience, whether through the fleetwide WiFi we’ve offered since 2009 or the library of latest release films, live TV, videogames and MP3s available at every seat via our Red entertainment touch-screens,” said Virgin America Vice President of Brand Marketing and Communications, Abby Lunardini. “With our new ViaSat WiFi, we’re excited to take this offering to the next level.”