Photo: Andreas Blixt / Flickr

Streaming music service Spotify has had plenty of frustrations in recent months, but they’re popping champagne bottles right now. The company has announced, via a blog post by co-founder Daniel Ek, that they have just reached one million paying subscribers for their streaming music service.

Good times

In the post Ek briefly reflects on where Spotify was conceived and how it feels to cross this critical landmark. He says: ‘It seems like only yesterday we were hatching ideas for a new music service in a tiny office-cum-apartment with a broken coffee machine, and the party we threw having reached one million users almost two years ago today was one to remember.’

However one million users in total is nothing compared to what he can brag about now. He continues, saying: ‘So it’s with a sense of real pride and excitement that we can announce a new milestone today, having welcomed our millionth paying subscriber to the service. It’s a testament to our fantastic users who continue to support us and spread the Spotify word, either by telling friends or sharing some of the 200 million playlists that you’ve put together so far.’

Smartphones ahoy!

The streaming music service has seen meteoric growth in paying subscriber numbers due, in no small part, to exploding smartphones sales. While Spotify is freely available – on an ad supported model – on desktops and laptops, you have to be a paying subscriber to use it on mobiles. With the promise of nearly every song ever recorded and published and accessible from your smartphone, it’s no wonder one million users are prepared to pay the equivalent price of a digital album each month to have access to the service.

What’s next?

For the streaming music service, the coming months will be trying months. They continue to look for a way to break into the US market on their own terms, and seem to be quite close to achieving that goal. Ek says: ‘We’ll continue to focus on providing you with the best music service possible, and look forward to adding even more cool new features over the coming months. What’s really exciting is that this is only the beginning. Thanks for listening!’

Oh, not only are we listening, sir, we’re watching, too.

Photo: babyben / Flickr

Streaming music service Spotify has been in the news relentlessly over the past week or so with news that it raised a massive round of venture capital, and that it had inked a deal with a certain major label. Now new reports say Spotify is on the verge of signing a deal with Universal Music Group and that the company may launch in the US without Warner Music’s catalogue.

US launch imminent

If Spotify manages to sign this deal with Universal Music Groups for US rights to the music on its catalogue, the only major hole in the service’s record label deals is Warner Music Group who has yet to agree to license their material. Now, many folks are speculating that Spotify, which is thought to be valued at $1 billion after a $100 million financing round, will launch without Warner.

The problem is Warner Music Group is the third largest music label group in the world by revenue, which would leave a gaping hole in Spotify’s strategy. And considering most music lovers couldn’t care which label their favourite artists are on, having a fifth of all tracks you search be unavailable may be very off putting for the potential US users of the streaming music service.

Smartphones the future

We’re keenly interested in streaming music services because they form a small part of a bigger trend in mobile computing we’re watching closely – smartphones. Music execs, smartphone manufacturers, software devs and users alike realise that both smartphones and streaming music are central to the immediate future of music consumption. Spotify is a forerunner in this very space.

For US-based readers, would you try Spotify if the company pushes on without getting Warner Music Group on board, or would you overlook it?

Photo: datalove / Flickr

The change averse music industry has warmed to streaming music services, with industry leaders finally warming to the idea that smartphone streaming is the future of the medium.

Eclipsing everything

David Joseph, who heads up Universal Music, recently told The Guardian that streaming services like Spotify and Last.fm were ‘eclipsing everything’ in terms of cash generation in the music industry.

He said: ‘It’s a different digital currency to downloading. You’re dealing there with 175 million single tracks bought a year compared to seven billion streams of music.’ So, in effect, what Joseph is copping to, is if these streams are monetized, at significantly less revenue per instance than each download, the record labels could still make more money from the streams.

This is the future

He continues, saying: ‘The revenues are significantly growing and I fundamentally believe that streaming and subscription models with unlimited access on all devices are the future of our business. But will people still listen to albums, or just single tracks, or send playlists to their friends? Answer: all of the above.’

Advertising won’t work, though

A future David Joseph and others do not see, however, is one where ad-supported streaming music services work. The basic problem is the revenue per stream derived from advertising per user is less than that derived per stream from users who pay a subscription fee.

This is widely cited as the reason Spotify has struggled to break into the US market, because the company insists on having a free advertising supported component to its service in conjunction with the paid-for service, whereas competitor Rdio only has a subscription service.

Thank you for waking up, finally

It’s always strange watching the music business warm to models consumers and service companies have already shifted to. Streaming music services are not new, and music listeners have long known smartphones were the future medium for the consumption of music. I suppose rather show up late than never, right?

Photo: Dekuwa / Flickr

Popular music service Last.FM is adopting a model similar to Spotify’s, wherein using the service on a desktop browser will remain free, but access from mobile devices will be charged for. While the move will no doubt disappoint Last.FM’s many loyal users, it appears as if the move was inevitable, as the service looks to better monetize its offering.

Who is affected

The only mobile devices unaffected by this move are Windows Phone 7 Last.FM users, and Xbox Live Last.FM users. The rest of us who use the popular streaming music service will be forwarded to a subscription page the next time we attempt to log in. This means if you’re using the service through an iOS device, an Android device, Sonos, Squeezebox device, as well as Denon, Roberts and Teufel devices, you’ll have to cough up some money.

This was necessary

Speaking on the changes, Matthew Hawn of Last.fm said that: ‘We’re committed to building Last.fm into a bigger service that gives listeners the best music discovery experience anywhere, while financially supporting and promoting the artists who make the music we love.’ He continued, saying, ‘For the cost of a fancy coffee, a Last.fm monthly subscription allows you to listen to radio across all platforms, on all your devices, and without commercial interruptions.’

Will this work?

Though subscription is a fairly cheap £3 per month, the streaming music service is facing a challenge in that it may be pushing its users to competitors like Spotify, who, though they’re more expensive, offer a more fledged listening experience, with a much vaster library of tracks.

As a fan of the streaming music service, it will be interesting to see how this decision affects the community, if at all. And hopefully the service is better able to monetize so these types of pricing scares don’t become commonplace.

Photo: Daveybot / Flickr

You’ve just bought your shiny new mp3 player, or finally downloaded Spotify for your smartphone, and are finding that your music collection is a little dated? Don’t worry. This problem is common for many people, and the best way to solve it is by consulting music review sites for expert opinion on what you should be listening to.

The problem is music reviews websites are a dime a dozen. A true music lover doesn’t want much, beyond a reliable, reputable and consistent source. As simple as that may sound on paper, you’ve no doubt found that quality review sites are rarer than albino lions. There are three sites we swear by, and you should consider them too.

Pitchfork

Pitchfork is, for our money, the best music lover’s website in the world. Their writers are peerless when it comes to discerning ears and literary abilities, while the features on the sites make them a joy to visit even if you aren’t searching for reviews.

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is the cornerstone of music review publications. While its editorials often come into question, and the odd review seems out of whack with what the rest of the music world thinks, their content has been top notch for decades now. Honestly, with the way information is disseminated nowadays, especially with the web, if the present-day Rolling Stone ever died, there would be none like it again. Their top 30 albums of 2010 list alone shows why they’ve managed to stay relevant for all these years.

NME

NME (New Musical Express) is a British publication that garnered relevance and clout even in an era when people refused to look beyond Rolling Stone. The magic of the NME is its constant ability to go beyond the frontmen in bands – the lead singers – and interact with the other guys who make a meaningful contribution to the music – the other band members.

This gives this particular music reviews site and its writers insight into music that often goes beyond concluding ‘that sounds good’, as lesser sites would, to being able to describe ‘why that sounds good’.

Between these three music review websites, you’ve cast a wide enough net that you won’t miss anything important, while also not exposing yourself to critics who haven’t the foggiest clue of what they’re talking about. Sure, music is highly subjective, but when it comes to figuring out what you should really be listening to, sometimes the opinion of the unversed really is less valuable than those who do this day in day out every single day.

Photo: Spotify

Spotify, the streaming music service that cannot be mentioned or gushed over enough if you live in Europe, has had a great year. Growing tremendously in Europe, it is the Apple of many European music lover’s eye. And it seems that great quality that’s made the service so widely demanded has led to Google approaching the company for a potential acquisition in the past, and more recently, seen a Spotify Apple relationship as being viable, too. Nice problem to have, no?

Grandfathering stopped Google

According to TechCrunch, Google was considering acquiring Spotify a few months ago, but gave up on the pursuit due to the streaming music service’s ‘grandfathering’ agreement with the major labels. Basically, what this entailed was that if any company acquired the startup, all the agreements it currently holds with the major record labels falls away. This made Spotify virtually useless to Google, outside of acquiring the brilliant tech and engineering talent behind the startup.

Steve Jobs cometh, Steve Jobs rejected

In that very same article, TechCrunch reported that a potential Spotify Apple relationship was  on the cards, with the iTunes holders considering buying the Swedish startup outright. Spotify has since come out saying that they’re independent and are not in talks to be purchased by Apple, so those of you salivating about native iPhone 4 or iPod Touch support can, sadly, put those hopes to bed.

The big, bold problem

Regardless of a Spotify Apple relationship, or even one with Google, the streaming music service has one colossal problem in its strategy – the company just cannot seem to break into the highly lucrative, mission critical, US market. We recently reported that it seems they may be available in that country before Christmas, which is good because the more it drags its feet, the further ahead Rdio will be able to get in that market.

In the meantime, though, if you live in Europe and you love music, there is zero justifiable reason for your not being signed up to Spotify already.  The smartphones apps make it a wonderful tool, as does the clever integration with Sonos audio systems.

Photo: Spotify

Popular streaming music service Spotify has its long-awaited US launch planned this side of Christmas. Once it does go live stateside, it will represent two years worth of negotiations just to setup shop in North America, a period in which it took Europe by storm. There is one rather large concern for Spotify – a competitor that beat them to market that goes by the name Rdio.

Major milestone

A paidContent report points the news that Spotify US will likely launch between American Thanksgiving and Christmas, representing a big breakthrough for the company in a must-win market. Making it stateside alone will be a major milestone for the Swedish startup, but outside of that, there’s been cause for celebration already. The service just announced it reached 10 million users in Europe – a massive achievement, no doubt.

The competition

Unlike its almost unchallenged dominance in Britain, Spotify is walking face first into Rdio, a competitor armed to the tee with license agreements, fantastic engineers, and a pair of shrewd founders who happened to have also started a little company you may have heard of called Skype. While the Swedish streaming music service has been slogging away to get record labels to agree on license terms, Rdio is fully operational in the US today, and on all accounts, has won over many fans.

The compelling products around it

What Spotify does have over Rdio, though, is deep integration with other compelling products, and a well recognised brand name. We recently wrote on how the brilliant Sonos Zone players integrated with Spotify to bring a seamless experience to users of both platforms. Really, it’s all intelligent product integration and partnering.

It also has rabid fans, who’ve been using the Facebook integration and sharing functionality with reckless abandon. From personal experience, it’s just an exceptional and exceptionally fun experience.
Rdio aside, this is a big deal for US music lovers, and will only cement streaming music as a major factor in the music industry in the coming years.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Yesterday a friend told me that with the wealth of knowledge technology has brought, coupled with the many gadgets people currently have, we have no excuse for ever getting bored. I asked him why he was telling me this. He answered, ‘Because I’m bored’. Go figure. Nevertheless, here are a few gadget-based boredom cures for those super yawn days.

Cure 1: Play video games

Being bored always represents a gap to play a video game. Whether it’s a brilliant Indie game like World of Goo, a quick game on Kongregate, or some time on your neglected console, gaming always cures boredom, I find.

Cure 2: Surf the Internet

I suggest doing this with trepidation – yes, it’s likely you probably don’t need to be spending even more time on the web then you already do, but I think excessive surfing may be the actual cause of boredom when you’re doing other things. Don’t quote me on this – it isn’t scientific research, but even lay people know the adverse effects of dependency and addiction.

Cure 3: Play music

Depending on how much music you listen to, playing music could be a boredom cure or, at the very least, give your bored state a soundtrack. Thankfully with the emergence of streaming services like Spotify and connected devices, you’ll never again have too little to listen to. Which, let’s be fair, may be a problem in itself.

Bonus: Do something that doesn’t involve gadgets!

‘What’s that?’ you ask? ‘Activities that don’t involve electronics?’ you cry? Yep. Fancy that. There was once a time when people didn’t have computers, or smartphones, or the Internet, or videogames, or any of the other gadgets we surround ourselves with, and somehow they survived. We know they survived because, umm, we wouldn’t be here if they didn’t. Crazy, huh? Perhaps it’s high time you pull out your bicycle and go for a ride? Perhaps take your dog for a walk to the park and play Frisbee? Kick a football?

Sometimes we get bored. These things happen. But curing boredom doesn’t necessarily require electricity, right? Right!

Photo: Spotify

Nothing beats watching two of your favourite things getting together and making a love child, and news that our favourite music streaming service, Spotify, is teaming up with our favourite home audio system, Sonos Zoneplayer, has us all giddy.

Call it SoYes already!

Sonos, with a reputation built on quality wireless streaming audio playback in the home, partnering with Spotify, which is considered to be the marquee audio streaming service, this partnership just makes sense.

There are a few requirements, of course. For one, you’ll need to own one of the Sonos Zoneplayer systems. You will also need a premium Spotify account – free won’t cut it, friends. Finally, you also need an iOS device – either the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad – to use the free Sonos application you can download from Apple’s app store so as to access Sonos. If you’ve ticked all those boxes, then do it!

How do the teams feel about it?

The good folks at TechRadar reached out for a comment on the deal, and got some gems. Mike Edwards, who is the UK regional director over at Sonos said ‘Spotify compatibility was the most requested feature we have ever had’. I can believe that.

While Sonos has long had access to various forms of streaming services and Internet radio, this represents the first time Spotify has ventured outside of the confines of computers and smartphones. Daniel Ek, who founded Spotify and is the current CEO, had this to say: ‘It’s great that people will be able to listen to Spotify whenever they want, wherever they want in their home,’ and that his company is ‘excited to partner with Sonos to deliver the unique Spotify experience in the home.’

Sonos Zoneplayer plus Spotify equals So Yes!

Photo: Rdio

Spotify for months have been negotiating – with little success – to get their service launched in the US. And all the while the brilliant streaming music service has been sideswiped by a younger ambitious startup, Rdio. What went wrong?

Advertising went wrong, that’s what

Apparently the major sticking point that’s stopped Spotify from launching in the US is it’s free advertising-supported component of the service. See, Rdio, does not have a free option, with a $4.95 offering for use from desktop and a $9.95 offering for using on mobile devices. Spotify on the other hand is used predominantly in the UK in its free incarnation, where users can stream a selected range of music freely but with periodic breaks for advertisement.

Record labels (within the US) prefer Rdio’s model because it represents guaranteed revenue per user – since it’s likely, at scale, usage and label royalty will reach a stable average. Ad-supported models are a hope and pray approach to business and don’t give the stability the desperately unstable music business needs.

What is streaming music?

Photo: Spotify

In short, streaming music services let you listen to music over either a wi-fi connection or a 3G connection by streaming the music over the Internet. In these instances, you never own the licenses to the music and you can listen for free with occasional ads, or pay a monthly subscription fee to listen with no ads.

Spotify is the predominant streaming music service in the UK, and, according to most everybody, the superior service, too. Rdio, on the other, seems to have the one ability every business needs if it is to succeed – the ability to close a deal. Whether they got cozy with record labels or gave ground grudgingly doesn’t matter. What matters is that Rdio is the streaming music service available in the US, and Spotify is not.

This intriguing Billboard article goes a long way into explaining why Spotify is struggling to get its streaming music service embraced by labels for US use.