Exciting news comes hot off the press this morning as 3 have announced a new partnership with Spotify and the HTC Hero.

By doing this, 3 have become the first UK operator to bundle Spotify premium into a compelling tariff and handset offer.

It’s an award winning combination. We were lucky enough to witness first hand as Spotify won Innovation of the Year at last week’s T3 Gadget Awards. On the very same evening HTC Hero picked up Gadget of the Year and Phone of the Year.

Bringing the two technologies together on 3’s network is a tasty prospect.

Ben Smith from The Really Mobile Project, who was with us at the T3 awards last week, says: “they’ve chosen to launch it [Spotify] on their first Android handset, the HTC Hero (fantastic news…)”

Faisal Galaria, Global Head of Business Development at Spotify says: “We’re intent on offering people a high quality, simple yet powerful portable music experience at a fair price and we’re thrilled to be working with 3 to bring Spotify to UK music fans.”

We’ll be posting further reaction and comment as the news spreads so watch this space.