Spotify’s much awaited India launch has hit a snag with International music label Warner Music filing an injunction to stop the launch in the country, reports Variety.

In a statement to the publication, a Warner Music spokesperson said that after months of negotiations, the music streaming service "abruptly changed course and has falsely asserted a statutory license for our songwriters’ music publishing rights in India". We have reached out to Spotify for a comment and will update once we hear back.

"It’s our goal to hammer out a deal that works for everyone. We hope this is just a speed bump in the expansion of our long and successful global partnership" the company said in the statement. We have reached out to Spotify for a comment and will update once we hear back.

Spotify has been in licensing discussions with major US record labels like Warner Music, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music for several months now, with several media reports suggesting that the labels had held up the service's India launch by not providing music licenses for the market.

In November last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had however downplayed these licensing problems during the company's earnings conference call, saying that launch delays due to licensing is "commonplace in this industry and nothing related to our overall strategy".

He also said that India is a fragmented marketplace, with a lot of different local labels and local publishers, due to which it is difficult to predict as to when they will enter the world’s second-largest Internet market.

Ek had first announced plans to enter the India market in March last year, during the company's investor day presentation, just prior to its direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company had also roped in former OLX India CEO Amarjit Singh Batra as the India country head early last year.

India is expected to play a key role in Spotify's international expansion plans, wherein it will take on rivals like Amazon Prime Music, Gaana*, JioSaavn and Hungama among others.

Disclosure: Gaana was incubated by Times Internet that owns ETtech. Also, Times Music is a part of the Times Group.