Tag: spotify
Turns out kids don't want Spotify – they want to own MP3s
The research undertaken by the University Of Hertfordshire for UK Music asked nearly 2000 14-24 year olds how they wanted their music, and a staggering 78% said they don't want to pay to stream it.
Five good reasons why Microsoft will obliterate Spotify
When word came out on Monday that Microsoft will launch a music streaming service by the end of the month, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek must have slumped in his chair with his head in his hands. Spotify was never going to be the only kid on the block – Ek would’ve known that – but for their first direct competitor to be the ‘Soft is pretty bad luck. There’s a lot that Spotify has done right but these are five good reasons why the global immovable object will be too much for music’s current irresistible force:
1) Microsoft will have better content
We’ve all had quite a while to play with Spotify now and I’ll challenge anyone not to have had several disapointments at the depth of their music catalogue. They’ve done a decent job but it just doesn’t compare to any other good music service. Have a quick browse around on iTunes, Last.fm and even Nokia Comes With Music and you’ll realise what a real music library is all about.
It’s all about deals with the record labels and the fact is that Microsoft has a hell of a lot more clout than a Johnny-come-lately start up from Sweden. No offence Mr Ek. You have a fan in me but there’s just no comparison.
Gates, Ballmer & Sons will bowl into all the offices of all the music people and walk out with as many tracks as they like and, at the end of the day, why would you bother with both music services as a consumer when one of them has all the tracks you want and the other doesn’t?
What’s more, there’s a very good chance that they’ll add video too. Now, that might be a paid for service, much in the same way that you can rent TV and films through BT Vision or the Apple Store, but it might also be free, provided the rest of the model proves financially successful.
2) Microsoft will make the model work
There’s quite a few murmurings that Spotify isn’t getting all that many people to sign up to the premium paid for service and I’m not hearing and seeing many different adverts on the player an in the music stream either. It all rather points towards the fact that the business model has yet to become fully viable. Now, I’m sure there’s a long term plan that we’re only seeing the tip of at the moment but those ad spaces now filled with voicemail messages from users aren’t wildly encouraging.
The trouble is that Spotify may never get to the point where there business model starts to reap the dividends with Microsoft wading in as soon as they have. If you’re an advertiser, where are you going to spend your money? Their profile is just too big and Spotify’s only hope here is that Microsoft will be too greedy with their ad price. Still, I can see agencies stumping up the extra cash just to make sure they’re getting the right exposure.
3) Microsoft is already in everyone’s home…
…and Spotify isn’t. This isn’t so much a size issue as one of distribution and exposure. Hang on, that’s basically the definition of size.
Any road, the point is that 90% of the world’s computers are still Windows machines. You and I may have heard of Spotify but you can bet we’re in some tiny percentage that has. Most people are going to hear about Microsoft’s music service first through a million different channels and that’s the one they’ll use because they trust it and it’s like it’s already there. It’s the AOL effect.
Not a lot Spotify can do about that one.
4) Microsoft has Xbox and Zune
Supporting hardware is going to be a big factor here. Spotify has launched an API – limited though it might be – but Microsoft don’t have to wait for people to come and develop apps for them. They’ve already got their own mobile OS. They can slap it straight on the front page of each phone that carries it. They can do the same to every desktop copy of Windows too.
Better still, they’ve got a home music player and mobile one of their very own. They’ve already said that they’re going to get the Xbox involved and they’d be crazy not to get the Zune in on the action too. Not only would it make their music service an obvious universal solution choice ahead of Spotify but it would also start to turn the Xbox into not just a games player but a proper home media centre. £100 says the next iteration is all about integration and HD video streaming.
5) Microsoft will have fewer teething problems
There’s still issues with using Spotify as Duncan pointed out a while back and they’re not the kinds of things that Microsoft is going to get wrong. They won’t have difficulty taking payments, they’re bound to have the kind of code in place to allow the integration of your own music library and anything else that they’ve got a problem with they’ll get sorted quickly. They’ll just throw a team of developers at it. Their platform will be a well oiled machine long before Spotify’s is and that could cost Sweden’s second favourite export.
The flip side to all this is that where Microsoft might be quick to develop they’re going to be slower to implement. When you’re going for total music domination, you’ve all those different platforms and devices to consider. Spotify does’t have that problem. It’s smaller and more agile. It’s not a lot to work with but I know enough about guerilla warfare to know that you’ve got to fight with your strengths and attack your enemy’s weaknesses. For example, if Spotify is thinking of getting into video, it might be a good idea to do it now, quickly. Moving into mobile phones yesterday would also be a big help. It’s time to get prolific.
Conclusions
I’m not a fan of any big corporation, so I’d be sorry to see Microsoft squash the competition, particularly when it’s one we’ve come to know and love. It’s the reach of the multi-national leviathan that’ll do for little old Spotify but there is a hope, and quite a good one, that Microsoft will cock it up. They’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past.
Make users pay for the service, add in too many limiting stipulations, throttle the idea in any way and no one’s going to want to bother with what they’ve got, no matter how big their library.
I’m looking forward to seeing which way they take it come the end of the month. If they’re sensible, this could be the change Microsoft has been looking for – a move away from piratable software and into money making services. If it works well enough, maybe even Windows will be free in the future? Nah.
Microsoft to launch free music streaming service in July
Yesterday was a big day for Microsoft. Office 2010 went into trials, they announced a suite of free cloud based applications to rival Google Docs, Zoho et al and the sneaky one that no one was expecting was the launch of a music streaming service to take on Spotify too. I’m surprised they didn’t launch their own social networks to go after Twitter and Facebook.
It’s not clear, as yet, as to how large the catalogue will be or quite how many ads, if any at all, we’ll have to put up with. What has been indicated in an interview with the Telegraph is that you’ll also be able to pay to download the tracks, much like 7Digital do for Spotify, and that the service will link in with the Xbox 360.
They’ll be more details within days, no doubt, as the service is set to launch by the end of the month. Now, why do I have a nagging feeling that Microsoft are going to throttle the whole operation somehow and actually make it rubbish?
Spotify to trial audio books service
Spotify is offering Chris Anderson’s new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price
, narrated by the author himself, free to all UK users.
It’s the first time Spotify has made an audio book available although they’re keen to stress that it’s only a trial – for the time being at least. “We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…” said Andres Sehr of Spotify.
Chris Anderson, the author of the hugely successful The Long Tail and current editor-in-chief of Wired is the perfect guinea-pig for the experiment. He is hugely influential in terms of the internet and web-culture and Free should appeal to a large number of Spotify users.
It’s quite a coup for Spotify as well. Free only been available for a few days in hard-copy and is sure to be a best-seller. It tells the story of new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods as the result of new technologies, such as the internet.
If you did want to buy Free in its hard-copy format, it’s available on Amazon for a bargain £8.54. The Long Tail is available in paperback for £6.69.
(via Spotify)
UK top 40 to include streaming songs
The UK singles chart is to be revamped to include songs played via streaming services. The move would mean that, for the first time since it began in 1952, the chart would not be simply compiled via music sales.
With services like Spotify and We7 becoming ever more popular the UK Charts Company said the charts were “bound to” incorporate streams although the changes might not be in place until 2010.
The company said: “The charts have always been there as a popularity poll, as a means of identifying what are the hottest records of the moment. That’s been relatively simple when people have bought stuff to keep forever. But that’s going to become increasingly more complicated.”
No exact details of how streams will be counted have been revealed although it has been suggested that they will carry less weight than actual sales.
In terms of keeping the charts as an actual representation of popular music, the proposal has to be a good thing. But the system will have to be properly monitored as there are a number of additional factors to consider.
What happens, for example, if a tune is streamed but then stopped or skipped by the user? Also, what about when a stream finishes and a new one automatically starts without the user specifically selecting that stream?
It will have to be policed as well, as the system would be open to corruption. It would be fairly easy for an artist to set up a couple of computers to continuously repeat their selected stream over and over again. Some sort of IP address tracking will no doubt come in to play.
Currently the top 2 songs on Spotify are Right Round by Flo Rida which was released in January and Kids by MGMT which first came out in October last year. This would indicate that songs don’t necessarily have to be brand new to be popular. The charts could be in for a bit of shake up then.
(via BBC)
Spotify to stream at CD quality
Last week we told you that Spotify was planning on a new range of services for its premium users. Well music lovers, the first of these services is being launched this week – CD quality streams.
Currently Spotify streams the songs in its catalogue at 160kb/s but this will be doubled to 320kb/s using an ogg vorbis q9 codec. Premium users need to change their preferences in order to benefit from this upgrade by ticking the box that says ‘enable high bitrate’ in their options menu.
To begin with the improved quality will only be available on the most popular tunes but will be rolled-out to the whole database within a few weeks. Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek says the upgrade means an “unparalleled listening experience” for premium users.
Spotify also claims that the upgrade means they will be offering “the highest streaming rate for any digital music service”.
It will be interesting to see how the market responds to this news. Will the amount of subscribers to Spotify’s premium service increase? Will you be upgrading your account?
Spotify to offer more paid for services
Spotify have responded to the news of Virgin Media’s team up with Universal Music by announcing that they are planning a whole bunch of new features to add value to its premium service.
Currently users who pay £9.99 a month (or 99p a day) can have ad-free access to the three million tracks that are available in the UK. The premium side of Spotify will be expanded to include:
- Mobile access, as revealed by this very blog last month
- Recommendations and ticketing
- Bundled downloads
- A social networking aspect to the service
- Better quality audio streams than the current 160kb/s ogg vorbis q5 codec
Spotify’s UK MD Paul Brown said: “The idea is to have a service with more features and functionality that will draw people in.”
It isn’t clear yet whether there will be additional subscription packages or whether the new features will be included within the current £9.99 fee. Either way, along with the Virgin/Universal announcement, it’s an exciting time for digital music.
(via NMA)
Free Music Friday for Vodafoners
Tomorrow is Free Music Friday, well, if you’re a Vodafone customer it is.
Vodafone is marking the release of unlocked tracks on it’s music store by offering eight songs for free! Eight whole freaking songs!
Want to see the songs? Ciara featuring Justin Timberlake – Love Sex Magic; Daniel Merriweather – Change; Lady GaGa – Poker Face; Lily Allen – Not Fair (Style Of Eye remix); Pixie Lott – Rolling Stone; Simple Minds – Rockets; Tinchy Stryder feat N-Dubz – Number 1; Clubbers Guide 2009 Mixtape.
Awesome yes? What a reward for Vodafone’s loyal customers. Finally, you’ll be able to listen to song’s you’ve, you know – bought, on whatever you like, not just your phone. And to celebrate that momentous victory of consumer over company, you can listen to Dappy and his buddies making raps and what have you.
That is what you do isn’t it – make a rap? I mean rap isn’t a verb, unless you’re rapping someone across the knuckles – surely…surely!
Vodafone is clearly hasn’t realized since Spotify appeared everyday is Free Music day.
Vodafone: What. A. Joke.
As a mark of protest can everyone on Vodafone please download all eight songs and then delete them.
PRS for Music cuts online streaming rate, Jonathan from Spotify is delighted
Royalty collector PRS for Music has cut its online streaming rate from £0.0022 per song to £0.00085 per song, which is music to the ears (punilicous) of struggling online music services.
The decision comes after a lengthy consultation with music industry heavyweights and new media professionals who argued that by making music more readily available the publishers and artists stood to make more money in the long run.
We7 CEO Steve Purdham, said: “On first glance, this looks like a good step in the right direction and it is pleasing to see that the PRS has listened to many of the consistent views from the consultation period. It is these minima which significantly affects the evolution of new digital businesses and the PRS have done a good job in going some way to address this problem.”
PRS is, however, authoring new Online Music Licenses which will replace the old Joint Online License, meaning PRS is sticking to the notion that the artist should be paid everytime their song is played. Even it is Flo Rida. Seriously who is listening to Flo Rida – whoever you are, will you ruddy stop please. He’s just awful.
Spotify coming to your mobile phone – but at a price
Good news: Yes, Spotify is indeed coming to mobile phones. Bad news: we’re going to have to pay for it. These were the words from the horse’s mouth when Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke at The Great Escape music conference over the weekend.
The word is that very few people – certainly in the UK – have signed up for Spotify’s £9.99 a month Premium service and this is just the kind of value content that’ll make people change their minds. Ek also dropped a large one that there’ll be some other bits and pieces to beef the package up in terms of social networking, exclusive track access and, most interestingly, music recommendations. He said:
“We definitely want to have music recommendations, but we would never recommend tracks ourselves.
“I’d love to work with someone like Last.fm and in a couple of days you’ll see an announcement for something like that.”
Well, the best way to work with some like Last.fm is to actually work with Last.fm and I’ve got a tenner down says that’s what we’re going to hear.
So, what do you think? Will you pay for Spotify on the go, given that it’ll probably work out side of connectivity too? Or has it just become the same as any old service with this announcement. Let us know in the comments – YES! THEY’RE BACK ON!!!!!
(via Brand Republic)
