Is Spotify the future of internet music?
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in 7Digital, Spotify, Sweden, music, Apple on
Spotify is riding high on a wave of good publicity, signing a deal with 7digital that means users will be able purchase tracks - possibly giving iTunes a major run for its money.
If you haven’t discovered or used it, then what you are missing out on it is a free, legal music service that pretty much allows you listen to unlimited streams of virtually any track or album that you might think of.
Too good to be true you might say - there must be lots of artists and record companies that haven’t signed up. Although it does lack songs by the likes of the Beatles and Pink Floyd, it has struck deals with all the major record labels - load it up for the first time and you’ll be surprised at what you can listen to, with no fee.
The way they manage to make this pay is by is 20 minutes or so, hitting you with a short advert. Considering that listening to the radio many stations seem to hit you with a advert every second song, this isn’t too much of a big deal. Spotify is also trying to make its premium paid-for service more attractive to users - it remains to be seen how successful this will be.
Spotify celebrates its third birthday today, and their founder Daniel Ek has blogged about how the service first started with the aim of providing a way to allow listeners to be able to listen to whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, but without having to act illegally.
The next move for Spotify is to open up to a wider community, while at the same time respecting rights holders, as well as generating enough money to provide users with a decent service.
Ambitiously, it wants to be the platform for people to consume, manage and discover music.
Ek says: “To reach our goal it’s important for Spotify to be wherever our users are. Music should be accessible on your favorite platform whether that’s a social network, an IM service, a mobile device or a media centre in your living room.”
Personally, using Spotify has been great. It slaps the iTunes store with a wet fish, considering you’re only allowed to listen to any song by purchasing a track.
It also encourages you to listen to music you don’t necessarily have access to or just want to test out. I’ve listened to the entire back catalogue of Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Wonder in this way - if you want to discover new music, this might be the best way that you can do it.
Importantly, it does have a role to play against piracy. Many people download songs because there is no other way to listen to them without having to purchase it online or buy a CD. This way, you can listen to the album for free, and then decide to purchase it if you want to keep it.
As one user commented: “Spotify really IS BETTER than piracy. Neither I nor many of my collegues have downloaded one single song illegally since we got Spotify accounts.”
Rated: 60% (2 votes)
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