Spotlight On Spotify
Will Spotify destroy iTunes? Sweden always has the coolest stuff.
Sweden, the country who continuously gives America a super wedgie when it comes to emerging musical artists, also lays claim to what may be the most superior of the digital music streaming services: Spotify.
Launched in October 2008, Spotify differs from streaming services that are available in the U.S. for one gigantic reason: it’s free. Or, at least, it offers a free, non-infuriating ad-supported tier as an option, along with over six million tracks from 20,000+ major and independent labels, with no commitment or other annoyances (30-day trials, give us your credit card number, you are now joining a cult from which you can never escape—that sort of thing). Instead, Spotify offers the following basic choices for its platform.
1) Free: Access to all tracks on Spotify. Songs and albums that you choose will stream in full, and you can make and share collaborative playlists with friends, purchase tracks through download partners, and listen to genre-based radio stations. Just set up an account and install the application.
2) Day Pass: One-time fee of £0.99 allows the music to stream uninterrupted for 24 hours.
3) Premium: £9.99 a month (currently just under $17) to get full streaming access with no ads, higher sound quality, the ability to make playlists available offline, unrestricted travel access, and mobile access on your phone or music device.
The player itself is very streamlined: Constant playing regardless of the page you travel to within the browser, full option to rewind or forward to any part of the song, and a fairly helpful personal recommendations section, regardless of the version of Spotify you subscribe to. Though it has its issues (not recognizing “and” when the artist name contains an ampersand, and songs will skip from time to time, though not often), the immediate ability to really hear an album at no cost before making a purchase decision is a lost art that’s been sorely overlooked in the recent years of 30-second preview clips.
And the free ad-supported version of Spotify has actually generated more money for participating labels than expected; full song streams have been linked to a higher purchase rate of tracks and opened up more advertising opportunities for the music labels. However, Spotify and its label partners cannot exist solely on free services. In fact, Spotify had to limit the free version when it launched in the U.K. to invite only. In order to be truly successful, Spotify must woo some listeners over to its Premium services. While this membership is similar to what U.S. streamers like Rhapsody, Napster, or Zune offer, Spotify’s Euro base may be what makes it more intriguing to heavier users. For those of us who are more interested in learning about new artists, the European service offers an opportunity for access to imports and music that may not be available on American services.
Boasting six million users so far, Spotify is currently only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the U.K., France, and Spain, but is planning a U.S. launch by early next year. Although it’s unknown what exact form it will take on once it reaches the highly competitive U.S. digital music culture, we can only hope that it maintains a similar setup to what’s available other countries, because it’s guaranteed to offer an improved listening experience as well as support the industry by exposing listeners to new music.
Posted by Leah Urbom on Nov 12, 2009 @ 9:00 am
