Spotify amps up iTunes rivalry with its own apps platform
Streaming music service's partners include the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Last.fm and Songkick
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Photograph: Rasmus Andersson/Spotify
Streaming music service Spotify has launched its own Spotify Apps platform, which developers and media partners will be able to use to build apps to run within the company's desktop application.
The platform was announced at a press conference in New York that bore all the hallmarks of Apple and Facebook's set-piece keynotes, with chief executive Daniel Ek outlining the news with the help of several partners.
Ek said that Spotify apps will bring features such as better recommendations, ticketing and editorial content to the service, with launch partners including the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Songkick, Last.fm and TuneWiki.
The Guardian's app brings album reviews from the Guardian and the Observer into Spotify's service, building on the two companies' relationship for a series of live gigs in London. You can read more about the app here.
"Today, we become a totally integrated platform," said Ek. "We're opening up our platform in a way that lets you curate the apps that you want, and really make Spotify yours … This is the beginning of something game-changing for digital music."
The new platform makes the rivalry between Spotify and Apple's iTunes even more clear-cut, with Spotify placing its bet on becoming a Facebook-style open platform to compete with the closed (by comparison) iTunes ecosystem.
Spotify's UK managing director, Chris Maples, told the Guardian that "We don't go into anything we do thinking 'is this the opposite of what iTunes would do?' But Daniel grew up in the digital world, as did a lot of people in the business. And the digital environment is about sharing and collaboration."
The apps will sit within Spotify's desktop client, although Ek said that if successful, the platform may extend to its mobile apps in the future too. The apps will be available to free and paying users of the service, although for now, developers will not be able to charge for them.
Developers will have to submit their ideas for apps to Spotify for approval before building and launching them.
Rolling Stone's app provides album, song and playlist recommendations from the magazine's staff, while TuneWiki's shows lyrics in real-time as songs play in Spotify. Songkick's app, meanwhile, will scan people's listening histories and suggest gigs they might want to attend.
Spotify is also using the apps platform itself, to add new features to the service – starting with a Facebook-style news ticker showing what friends are doing on the service.
"We have a lot more in the works. But more than anything we really look forward to being surprised by developers," he said. "We believe they're going to deliver amazing new apps within the Spotify platform."
Ek did not address the recent criticisms of streaming music payouts to artists during the event, but he did defend the company's business model, in response to a question about whether its payments to music rights holders risk becoming a bigger burden as more people use Spotify.
"For us, we don't feel that those are onerous terms in any shape or form. We're very happy with how our model is performing," he said. "We are paying out the vast majority of all the revenues, and that's really how we want to keep going."
Spotify currently has 10 million active users, with 2.5 million of them paying for the service. It is available in 12 countries, and its users have created more than 500m playlists – a number that has doubled since July 2011.
The company has a catalogue of 15m songs, and is adding about 20,000 new tracks a day – although high-profile recent albums from Adele, Coldplay and Snow Patrol have been kept off the service by the artists' management teams.
"The Spotify revolution is really to make access as an alternative to ownership," said Ek. "We're just three years in, but we've already become the second biggest digital revenue source for all the labels in Europe behind iTunes. And we've paid out more than $150m to the music industry so far."
He also summed up Spotify's mission statement with a carefully-crafted soundbite. "The ultimate goal here is to be as ubiquitous as the CD, but with all of the obvious advantages of being digital."
Stuart Dredge
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011 19.05 GMT
© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Spotify amps up iTunes rivalry with its own apps platform | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Streaming music service's partners include the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Last.fm and Songkick
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Photograph: Rasmus Andersson/Spotify
Streaming music service Spotify has launched its own Spotify Apps platform, which developers and media partners will be able to use to build apps to run within the company's desktop application.
The platform was announced at a press conference in New York that bore all the hallmarks of Apple and Facebook's set-piece keynotes, with chief executive Daniel Ek outlining the news with the help of several partners.
Ek said that Spotify apps will bring features such as better recommendations, ticketing and editorial content to the service, with launch partners including the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Songkick, Last.fm and TuneWiki.
The Guardian's app brings album reviews from the Guardian and the Observer into Spotify's service, building on the two companies' relationship for a series of live gigs in London. You can read more about the app here.
"Today, we become a totally integrated platform," said Ek. "We're opening up our platform in a way that lets you curate the apps that you want, and really make Spotify yours … This is the beginning of something game-changing for digital music."
The new platform makes the rivalry between Spotify and Apple's iTunes even more clear-cut, with Spotify placing its bet on becoming a Facebook-style open platform to compete with the closed (by comparison) iTunes ecosystem.
Spotify's UK managing director, Chris Maples, told the Guardian that "We don't go into anything we do thinking 'is this the opposite of what iTunes would do?' But Daniel grew up in the digital world, as did a lot of people in the business. And the digital environment is about sharing and collaboration."
The apps will sit within Spotify's desktop client, although Ek said that if successful, the platform may extend to its mobile apps in the future too. The apps will be available to free and paying users of the service, although for now, developers will not be able to charge for them.
Developers will have to submit their ideas for apps to Spotify for approval before building and launching them.
Rolling Stone's app provides album, song and playlist recommendations from the magazine's staff, while TuneWiki's shows lyrics in real-time as songs play in Spotify. Songkick's app, meanwhile, will scan people's listening histories and suggest gigs they might want to attend.
Spotify is also using the apps platform itself, to add new features to the service – starting with a Facebook-style news ticker showing what friends are doing on the service.
"We have a lot more in the works. But more than anything we really look forward to being surprised by developers," he said. "We believe they're going to deliver amazing new apps within the Spotify platform."
Ek did not address the recent criticisms of streaming music payouts to artists during the event, but he did defend the company's business model, in response to a question about whether its payments to music rights holders risk becoming a bigger burden as more people use Spotify.
"For us, we don't feel that those are onerous terms in any shape or form. We're very happy with how our model is performing," he said. "We are paying out the vast majority of all the revenues, and that's really how we want to keep going."
Spotify currently has 10 million active users, with 2.5 million of them paying for the service. It is available in 12 countries, and its users have created more than 500m playlists – a number that has doubled since July 2011.
The company has a catalogue of 15m songs, and is adding about 20,000 new tracks a day – although high-profile recent albums from Adele, Coldplay and Snow Patrol have been kept off the service by the artists' management teams.
"The Spotify revolution is really to make access as an alternative to ownership," said Ek. "We're just three years in, but we've already become the second biggest digital revenue source for all the labels in Europe behind iTunes. And we've paid out more than $150m to the music industry so far."
He also summed up Spotify's mission statement with a carefully-crafted soundbite. "The ultimate goal here is to be as ubiquitous as the CD, but with all of the obvious advantages of being digital."
Stuart Dredge
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011 19.05 GMT
© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Spotify amps up iTunes rivalry with its own apps platform | Technology | guardian.co.uk
