[Image courtesy of IntoMobile]

Tomorrow’s Nexus One announcement from Google may have a few surprises.  One such surprise is a rumor that Spotify, the popular European music subscription service that let’s users stream music as well as access their own content and playlists, will finally be hitting North America as a preloaded application on the Nexus One. There are certainly debates over subscription-based streaming services, but the move could be a boon for Google as far as competing with the iPhone+iTunes juggernaut.

The biggest drawback has been the subscription-based model itself.  While it’s unknown whether the deal will be worked out — in time for tomorrow’s official Nexus One announcement, if at all — rumor also has it that Google would be paying out up to $4 per user, per month to bring Spotify over as a “free” music streaming and offline caching application for Nexus One users.

Can the Google Monebags handle that kind of payout?  If so, why not just purchase Spotify altogether? Would the agreement and preloaded applicaiton merely be a limited Spotify where users would be expected to “upgrade” and pay a subscription down the road?  More importantly, would such a deal be enough to compete against Apple’s iPhone and iTunes service?

[IntoMobile via TechCrunch]