Spotify in America: what we know so far

Written by Editor | Published on July 22, 2009

Have you heard? Spotify is heading to the US!

Of course you’ve heard. It’s everywhere. To save you the effort of going through the waffle, here’s a little round up of  what we know so far.

The original story (I believe), came from the Observer:

The online music streaming service Spotify, which has more than two million users in Europe, is recruiting staff for an imminent assault on the US music scene despite admitting that it is struggling to hit its target of making a profit by the end of the year.

Expansion in the US will be through word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Ek is hoping that social networks such as Twitter will spread the word about Spotify among Americans: “Don’t expect a fancy marketing campaign. The money we could have spent on marketing is better spent on developing a better product.”

So far, so good.

And what about Microsoft’s little project? From the brilliant ReadWriteWeb:

According to Forbes journalist, Javier Espinoza, “Another looming threat [to Spotify]: Microsoft is launching a very similar music streaming service later in July, a service that also allows users to download the music, something Spotify still won’t allow members to do.” Nevertheless, the question is, will Microsoft be able to provide cross-format support and separate itself from its lackluster music devices in order to build a site that consumers will enjoy? If it can’t, Spotify will have nothing to worry about.

PaidContent – who tend to focus on finance rather than fun – identifies the US move as a crucial point in the start-up’s short history:

And, after we revealed Spotify’s VC search, Ek said on Times Online’s report that it is valuing itself at £200 ($121.4) million: “If someone’s willing to pay £200 million for it, that’s what it’s worth. But would I sell the business for £200 million? The answer is no. If it’s done right, this could be a billion-dollar company.” But with only a minority taking the premium options, and the free option threatened by the advertising recession, we’ll have to wait and see on that.

If it’s done right, Ek’s a millionnaire. Done wrong, and he’s in the dole queue, it seems.

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Mercury prize nominees on Spotify [updated]

Written by Editor | Published on July 21, 2009

It’s Mercury prize time again. From the Guardian:

Florence and the Machine, Kasabian and Bat for Lashes are the favourites to walk away with the £20,000 prize, voted for by a panel of critics and music industry figures. Synth-pop duo La Roux and Scottish indie-rock quartet Glasvegas are also hotly tipped.

Among the lesser-known artists are south London rapper Speech Debelle and art-rock trio the Invisible, while eccentric quintet Led Bib and folk group Sweet Billy Pilgrim make up the more leftfield nominations.

Cue much chat of ‘oh it’s so over-commericalised now quoff quoff’ from the arrogant classes. Regardless of what you think, why not take a minute to go over the nominated albums, eight of which are available on Spotify.

Telegraph blogs editor Shane Richmond has put them together in a playlist. If Glasvegas win, I’ll… well… I don’t know what I’ll do. Something drastic, probably.

Update: Eamonn Forde at The Times is worried that Spotify will put him, and other music critics like him, out of job. Indeed it’s true – impressive as a Mercury prize may be, the ultimate judge of how good the nominated albums are is how they feel in our ears.

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Does the US want Spotify?

Written by Editor | Published on July 21, 2009

YES! OH GOD YES! (says CNet):

Does America actually want it?

We fired up the old instant messenger and chatted with an actual American to find out. This American was called Donald Bell, and he happens to be a senior editor and audio expert at CNET.comover in the US. Turns out the thought of an American Spotify is exciting him as much as it is us.

“I suspect it would do gangbusters,” he said, while we nodded and smiled as though we knew what that meant. “The rage here for young and old is Pandora. Subscription music services all seem to fall flat because no one wants to pay for music anymore, much less music they can’t keep. Spotify, from my brief encounters with it, seems to bridge the simplicity of Pandora with the ravenous all-you-can-download gorging of subscription music — but without any of the cost. In this way, I think an American audience will take to it immediately, provided nothing swoops in before it.”

CNet describe it as a race – a format war for 2009.

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HOOO-CHA! Become a Spotify ninja with TechRadar

Written by Editor | Published on July 21, 2009

Even though it’s still fairly basic in function, the Spotify client is choc-full of clever shortcuts and features that the casual user may never come across.

TechRadar has come up with this list of ten ways to become a Spotify ninja. We won’t list them all here (that’s a bit naughty), but here’s a couple of our favourites:

5. Draggable URLs

You probably already know that you can right click on Spotify playlists, tracks and albums to copy the HTTP link or Spotify URI to the clipboard. You can also drag and drop any Spotify link to the text box of another program; an email client, instant messager, URL shortener or Twitter window. The HTTP link is embedded – not the Spotify URI.

Spotify draggable urls

And…

7. Quicker playlist creation

So, you’ve found Spotify’s most popular tracks – now turn them into a playlist. CTRL and click on tracks to make multiple selections, then right-click to open the context sensitive menu and choose ‘Save to’ and ‘New Playlist’.

Now go on, read the rest.

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Can Spotify help you work?

Written by Editor | Published on July 20, 2009

Interesting little piece in today’s Independent wondering if we’re about to become a nation of headphone-workers, keeping out the noises of the open-plan office with finely tuned Spotify playlists:

The headphones phenomenon is generally frowned upon in the white- collar professions for which you have to wear a suit to work every day, but it’s prevalent in the “creative” and media industries. And in dotcom country, people are particularly reluctant to interrupt a colleague’s playlist, says Andres Sehr of Spotify. In the company’s Stockholm office of approximately 65 people, most spend their days plugged into the music streaming service.

Well yes. I guess if the Spotify team didn’t listen to Spotify, who would?

In the pursuit of balance, the Indy quote a chap called Peter York, a.k.a Chief of the Fun Police:

“Many workers in the so-called ‘creative’ industries privatise themselves by listening to an iPod and staring at a Mac screen, thinking they’re modern,” he says. “When dotcom started in ‘98, ‘99, you went to those offices and people had mountain bikes in the hall. We should ban headphones, ‘creative’ interiors, and mountain bikes.”

Mountain bikes! Good heavens!

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Uphill struggle for US domination

Written by Editor | Published on July 19, 2009

There’s still a long way to go, say Forbes:

[A]nalysts believe Spotify’s success in the U.S. is far from a shoo-in.Spotify has signed deals with record companies in Europe but it now has to do the same all over again in the U.S. Artists usually license their rights to one record company for the North American market and to another for Europe and the rest of the world. So now Spotify has to renegotiate all the deals. It has already spoken to the major labels, but it hasn’t signed a single deal yet.

Surely success in Europe will mean US labels will be more than willing?

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Spotify to go Stateside later this year

Written by Editor | Published on July 19, 2009

newsThis news has been knocking around for a bit – but it looks like Spotify’s move to the States is gaining traction. From the Observer:

On a visit to New York, Spotify’s co-founder, Daniel Ek, told the Observer that he was hiring employees and seeking office space for a launch in the US in the “third or fourth quarter”. But he revealed that Spotify may not meet its often-stated goal of making a profit by the end of 2009.

“We still hope to do that, but given the recession and so on, it might take a little longer,” said Ek. “It may be next year.”

A make or break moment, then. The issue of profitability hangs dangerous over their heads. A break to America will mean their royalty outgoings will go through the roof – with no sign of advertising picking up. Risky business.

Further down in the Observer piece is a few interesting stats about ad click-throughs on the service:

Unusually, Spotify sells its own advertising rather than using an agency to pull in customers. Ek maintains that Spotify’s strength is its ability to match suitable advertisers closely with the age, location and music tastes of its customers.

“We know for a fact that music history and demographic history can tell you a lot about brand preferences,” he said.

The site has a “click through” rate of about 0.5% of users who alight on advertisements, although when audio ads are matched with display promotions, this rises to 1% – higher than most websites.

Impressive numbers.

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Spotify founder Daniel Ek makes Guardian top media list

Written by Editor | Published on July 14, 2009

Every year, the Guardian’s Media supplement publish a whopping great list of 100 influential people in the media. Spotify founder Daniel Ek makes a surprise entry in at number 28. From the Guardian:

Daniel Ek is co-founder and chief executive of Spotify, the online jukebox that has been hailed as a potential saviour of the music industry.

A legitimate alternative to the illegal filesharing that has been accused of crippling the music industry, Spotify allows users to listen to a vast catalogue of music for free. It is funded by one minute of advertising an hour; premium users can pay £9.99 a month to listen without advertising.

Not since iTunes has a music website created so much buzz. “He is changing the music business as we know it,” said our panel.

Well done to Daniel. Even more impressive is who he out-ranks: the BBC’s Jana Bennett, who is in charge of programmes on BBC telly; Viscount Rothermere, a chap in charge of the vast media empire that is the Daily Mail and General Trust; and even the editor of the Guardian himself, Alan Rusbridger.

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Microsoft to launch Spotify rival this month

Written by Editor | Published on July 13, 2009

newsEnough to make Daniel Ek and co quake in their Suitopia suits: Microsoft are launching their own streaming music service, and it could be out as early as this month. From the Telegraph:

Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, Microsoft’s news and entertainment portal, told The Telegraph exclusively: “Music is an important area for Microsoft. We are looking at launching a music streaming service imminently.

“It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work.”

Spotify users can stream music for free in exchange for listening to around a minute of advertising every half hour but for £9.99 a month, the ads will be turned off. It is thought Microsoft’s offering will be ad-supported too as well as having a paid-for premium service.

Mr Bale added: “We are looking at how other similar businesses have structured their business models and trying to figure out what will work best for both consumer and Mircosoft.”

Interesting. Trust Microsoft to make something as exciting as streaming music sound so very dull.

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Foxytunes adds Spotify support

Written by Editor | Published on July 11, 2009

And now for a post from the blindingly useful department.

Those of you out there using Firefox on Windows may have come across Foxytunes already. It’s a neat way of controlling your music player – iTunes or whatever – from within your browser. The Spotify Blog was pleased to discover the guy(s) behind Foxytunes have now added support for Spotify, meaning you can play, pause and skip tracks without breaking your browsing stride. From the Foxytunes blog:

We’ve been hard at work on FoxyTunes and we’re proud to announce that in this release you can control Spotify from FireFox on Windows. We will be working hard over the coming months to extend that reach to IE and Mac. In the meantime, please let us know what you think of the feature as well as dropping a note to our friends over at Spotify.

Posted in Software, Tips, Tools | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments
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