Josh Ong
The service will launch in the U.S. Thursday morning at 8:00 AM EST, though initial availability will be "by invitation and subscription," according to a press release sent to AppleInsider on Wednesday. Interested customers can pre-subscribe at www.spotify.com ahead of the beta launch.
"Spotify, the award-winning digital music service loved by millions of Europeans, will become available tomorrow morning in the United States by invitation and subscription," the release read. "Spotify is a new way to listen to and manage your music, discover new tracks and share songs and playlists with friends – music whenever you want it, wherever you are."
Further details were lacking, though the company promise more information during tomorrow morning's launch. Paul Miller of This is my next reports having spoken to someone from Spotify, who said customers will have access to a library of 15 million songs, available for free with ads, $5 a month without ads and $10 a month to include mobile access and higher bit rates.
Spotify officially announced that it was coming to the States earlier this month, boasting the availability of "any track, any time, anywhere" for free. Rumors of a U.S. launch have persisted for more than a year.
Last fall, rumors claimed Apple was ">in negotiations
For its part, the Cupertino, Calif., company has repeatedly said that its digital storefronts do not generate substantial profits, despite being wildly successful. "Regarding the App Store and iTunes stores, we are running those a bit over break even, and that hasn't changed," Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said last year.
Regardless, one analyst foresees iTunes growing to $13 billion in revenues by fiscal 2013 with an expected annual growth rate of nearly 40 percent. Since its launch in 2003, the iTunes Music Store has become the most successful music store in history, with more than 10 billion tracks downloaded.
Despite initial rumors that Apple would introduce its own streaming service, the company instead announced last month iCloud, a cloud-based storage solution that will automatically sync music and other data across a range of devices when it arrives this fall. The free service will by default store all music purchased from iTunes by a customer, while the new iTunes Match service will scan and match a user's personal music library with songs available in iTunes for $24.99 a year.
Wesley Hilliard
Thomas Sibilly
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
Malcolm Owen
26 Comments
I have Spotify and...Spotify is more like Rdio than it is like iTunes.
Great news, I'm very excited for this.
I've been pretty hesitant with all the streaming music services, but from what I've heard, this is one of the best. I'm not really into what google has done with manual uploads and favoring android, and I don't think Apples strategy is a true 'streaming' service. But with Spotify's desktop program, it sounds like a better option than Rdio.
I don't listen to the radio, and it's been harder to find new music, but with the abilty to play full songs, full albums, not deal with a sluggish itunes interface, I'm thinking this will turn into my Netflix for music.
I wish Australia would finally get something like this, and I'd love to see Netflix thrown in too. Not fair that you Europeans and Americans get to have all the fun!
$10/month - yes please.
For those who don't know, Spotify is largely owned by the record labels who are using this as a revenue stream, but one with a loophole that allows them to not pay musician royalties.
As far as the musicians are concerned, Spotify is like paying the record labels for pirated music.
I wish Australia would finally get something like this, and I'd love to see Netflix thrown in too. Not fair that you Europeans and Americans get to have all the fun!
I'm told Netflix went up 60% today, for what can only be described as a truly pathetic selection of streaming movies. They didn't bother to actually email me to tell me either, I had to find out about it on CNN.com.
I'm canceling the streaming service and selling my Apple TV on eBay. Will it work down under?
From Wired, several months ago:
"All four major labels and super-indie Merlin together own 17.3 percent of the company, either in return for actual money, as advances on royalties, or as some combination of the two. Wired.com highlighted a major problem inherent with this strategy in May of 2008, when News Corp. gave the labels equity in MySpace Music in return for the right to use their music. (It?s important to note that indie-aggregator Merlin succeeded here where it failed with Last.fm.)
The problem with exchanging equity in return for the right to play music from certain labels is obvious: It means bands must sign to a major label if they hope to receive equal compensation from start-ups like Spotify. This state of affairs runs counter to everything the internet promises about dis-intermediation, and returns us to the days of only certain gatekeepers controlling access to culture.
Say Microsoft buys Spotify for four times its current valuation, or $1 billion. All four labels, the indies that belong to Merlin ? and now, Li Ka-shing ? would see a big payday, and would presumably filter some of that money through to the artists they represent. Meanwhile, indie bands and labels whose music is included in the service but who lack equity deals would only receive whatever they?re owed under their standard licensing agreements."
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/...e-billionaire/