Spotify app now on the iPhone and Android
Executives at Spotify’s headquarters must have let out a deep sigh of relief when Apple gave them the green light allowing their app to be launched on the iPhone app shop. Many doubted that Apple would shoot itself in the foot by allowing a rival music app that could potentially poach its itunes customer base away from them.
iPhone owners in Europe (Spotify is not yet available in the U.S) who take up Spotify’s premium internet service for £9.99 a month, are now able to use their iphones to search for new music using the app and stream music from their playlist or temporarily store the playlists on their iPhones for playback when there is no connection. Sounds fantastic if you’re a music lover; at the beck and call of your fingers tips will be thousands and thousands of your favourite tracks. It would be fantastic if Spotify could have some Beatles music (see The Beatles Stereo Box Set
This comes as very good news to the Swedish streaming service who have been trying for some time to encourage users of their free streaming service to upgrade to their full premium subscription. With an army of iPhone music lovers now in their sights, Spotify can now expect to see an increase in subscriptions.
An Android app was also recently made available to Android phone users; however, a version of Spotify already exists – called drodify – which was created by a programmer who got fed up waiting for the release of an official Android version. I gave it a spin and it does manage to stream a few tracks with album art included, however, just as you’re beginning to get into the music – and believing this is too good to be true – it suddenly crashes without warning leaving you cursing Spotify for not releasing their version sooner; at the the time, it also inspired me to cancel my subscription with Spotify.
For Apple to allow iphone users to have access to Spotify’s app, it must mean that they are confident that overall, people will prefer to own their music outright as opposesd to Spotify’s format which only allows you to stream or temporarily store and listen to playlists as long as you remain a subscriber to their premium service which does not run adverts. It remains to be seen whether Spotify’s format will pose a serious challenge to Apple’s iTunes; for the time being, Apple remains the biggest retailer in the digital music market. Currently, Spotify is only available in Europe with over six million user across the continent.
Useful links: The problem with Spotify (NME.COM), Spotify reverts to invite-only sign-up (Telegraph.CO.UK)
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