The Swedish music streaming service Spotify is planning to launch its first mobile application within days.

The company has submitted the application to Apple’s iTunes App Store for its approval.

If given clearance, Spotify’s service will then be available for users to download onto iPhones.

From BBC News

Great! A post on the BBC’’s dot.life blog goes into greater depth:

I can now reveal – having played with a beta version for a few days – that the version submitted to Apple will allow users to take their existing playlists with them on the phone and to search over wi-fi or a 3G network for new tracks – but there’s another “killer app” to this app. It allows you to download songs or entire playlists so that you can take them with you on the phone – and listen even when you don’t have a signal or a wi-fi connection.

And there we have it. The business model. The model that’ll make any music lover think “Ah yes, that premium subscription is a very nice idea!”. Hopefully.

Still a few issues to overcome, though. Firstly, Apple may not even let it in the app store, so we may just be getting excited over nothing. But, as Rory Cellen-Jones points out in that post, Apple could be seen to be anti-competitive – which could lead to problems.

Second, if this app is only available for premium subscribers, then it could struggle to gather the mass appeal that the desktop client has. Perhaps the answer may be that it’s free to stream music, but in order to pre-load playlists for offline listening you have to be a subscriber. Seems like the decent middle ground to me.

UPDATE: Wired.com have a few more screenshots of the app in action here.

UPDATE 2: Here’s the app in all its glory. Looks great!

UPDATE 3: The app will, at least initially, be just for premium members. From the official Spotify blog:

Our iPhone version is very similar to the Spotify you’re already familiar with and will allow you to listen to your music even when you’re not connected to a network. The application should be available in a few weeks for premium subscribers – we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it’s in AppStore.

The Official UK Charts Company said it was “bound to” include streaming and subscription services at some point, but not for at least another year.

Because listeners do not pay per track – if at all – those plays would be likely to carry less weight than normal sales.

Speaking to the BBC, the Official Chart Company’s managing director, Martin Talbot said:

“The Official Chart Company’s managing director, Martin Talbot, has said that streaming figures would be factored in when they become “a very big part of the way people consume music going forward…I think ultimately it’s bound to happen. But that could be five years, it could be 10 years, it could be 20 years.”