LONDON--Spotify has tapped Grayling for PR support, focusing on specific European markets in which the increasingly popular online music platform has yet to launch.

The Holmes Report understands that Spotify has charged Grayling with building awareness in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The development comes amid the rise of rival player Simfy in the three markets. The German company launched last year and already has more than one million registered users for its free and paid versions.

Spotify, meanwhile, has more than two million paid subscribers, although that number swells to more than 10 million once free users are accounted for. In Europe, the platform is available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Spain, the UK, and the Netherlands. Spotify also debuted in the US earlier this year, tasking PR firm Splendid with launch activities.

Spotify has yet to indicate in public that it is considering launching in the three markets. According to a report earlier this year in Billboard magazine, Spotify has not entered Germany because of an inability to reach a licensing deal with German performance rights society GEMA.

Spotify’s London-based head of communications Alison Bonny, who joined the company earlier this year, declined to comment. Representatives from Grayling also declined to comment.