[quote]LOS ANGELES — Digital music service Spotify arrived in the United States on Thursday, aiming its addictive, free song service at American listeners in the hope that they will then pay for more features, just as nearly 2 million have done in Europe.
Spotify gives people access to more than 15 million songs on computers for free as long as they listen to a few 15-second ads. It then tries to persuade them to pay $5 a month for a computer-only version that strips out the ads, or $10 a month for one that can be used on mobile devices including iPhones and Android-powered devices.
“The key is to get them invested in the experience,” Ken Parks, chief content officer and managing director of Spotify North America, said in an interview. “You spend 1,000 hours in an experience like Spotify building playlists, it sort of becomes part of your life.”
“Suddenly the question about whether you pay the equivalent of two or three fancy coffees a month to take that collection on your mobile device becomes a much easier question to answer,” he said.
The Swedish company has more than 10 million registered users and 1.6 million paying customers in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
It added the United States as its eighth market on Thursday as it launched for invited users in a test period.
Spotify is the latest in an array of companies to offer a subscription music plan with the cooperation of the major music labels. The competing plans include Rhapsody, MOG and Rdio. All offer a $10-a-month plan that allows for unlimited listening to millions of songs and the ability to save songs on phones for playback when outside of cellphone range.
So far, such plans have not been popular enough to reverse a decade-long slide in music sales, which has been mainly caused by piracy.
Last year, revenue from paid subscription plans fell 5 percent from a year earlier to $201 million, even though the number of subscribers grew about 25 percent to 1.5 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Including CD sales, downloads and other forms of music, the value of U.S. music shipments fell 11 percent to $6.85 billion, the RIAA said.
The most popular of the subscription services, Rhapsody, has more than 800,000 paying subscribers.
But none of the existing plans have what Spotify offers: an enticing free service that offers a huge chunk of listening and gets consumers to bond with its interface. Others have trial services that last from a few days to a week.
Pandora, a popular Internet radio service, allows for unlimited free listening to songs with audio ads, but it doesn’t allow users to pick specific tracks and its library of songs is far smaller.
On Spotify, European users are allowed to listen for free for 20 hours a month for the first six months, after which their free listening is capped at 10 hours a month with a limit of five plays per song.
Spotify said it will study how U.S. users adopt the service before it decides on free usage caps here.
Parks boasted that the application offered “instantaneous” access to songs with no data buffering. In a brief test of the computer-only application, song plays were extremely snappy.
The program also quickly dug through a user’s existing iTunes program to find playlists and identify purchased music and favorites. The interface resembled Apple Inc.’s iTunes program but with less clutter.
Read more: [URL="http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/14729641/article-Spotify-launches-in-the-U-S-?instance=special _coverage_right_column#ixzz1SKpLIV6c"]The Marietta Daily Journal - Spotify launches in the U S[/URL] [/quote]
[URL="http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/14729641/article-Spotify-launches-in-the-U-S-?instance=special _coverage_right_column"]http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/14729641/article-Spotify-launches-in-the-U-S-?instance=special _coverage_right_column
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[media][URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs[/URL][/media]
does america include canada?
[QUOTE=Lambeth;31166848]does america include canada?[/QUOTE]
No.
Even though I live 3km from the U.S
And you too, if i remember correctly
[QUOTE=Lambeth;31166848]does america include canada?[/QUOTE]
No. Political America, not geographic.
I'll check this out.
Looks neat.
Spotify recently annoyed alot of people by making the 'free' service almost useless. It basically serves as a glorified free trial now, you can listen to any one song only 5 times ever, and there is a monthly limit. Having said that, I am on the 'Unlimited' (£5 a month) plan and I completely love it. I use Spotify to find new bands that I would otherwise not have heard of, and almost constantly have music playing from my computer (If I am on the computer, Spotify is playing music). I honestly recommend you try it out, and with services like this there is no real excuse for music piracy other than greed (£5 a month really isn't alot of money, it pays itself back as soon as you listen to a new album).
You can pay per month to have access to everything, or you can pay specifically for the songs or tracks you want, I think that if you buy their largest 'package', then it works out at about 50p for a song download, and you can download whatever you want, there are no album exclusive tracks or anything silly like that. Here in the UK the song play is instant, even for songs I have never listened to before, and it causes no lag in other applications. My 5mb/s download speed remains at 5mb/s even with Spotify playing in the background. It causes no lag in games, and basically acts as if it isn't even there. It's an amazingly good concept that is excecuted amazingly well. US FP'ers, try this. European FP'ers, try this. If Spotify is available in your country, try it.
The US version is shit, it labels everything with [EXPLICIT] as well as not allowing hundreds of albums that I listen to.
[editline]17th July 2011[/editline]
Netherland account master race
I've been using Spotify for ages and I love it.
Spotify premium represent.
[QUOTE=TehWhale;31176953]The US version is shit, it labels everything with [EXPLICIT] as well as not allowing hundreds of albums that I listen to.
Netherland account master race[/QUOTE]
I think the Explicit thing is for when the 'clean' version is also there. Probably to stop angry 'soccer moms' complaining about how a song said fuck and there was no warning about it.
I was used to where in The Netherlands every song was played as it was meant to be, the "dirty" version, with no censorship and no [EXPLICIT] labeling. When I got the US version there's a clean and dirty version of every song, lots of albums aren't available in the US, it's pretty bad. If you can go with somewhere like The Netherlands where the laws are a lot less strict. You do need a premium account do that though, so if you're in the US you are "traveling" since you are out of your country. It works out nicely though.
[QUOTE=TehWhale;31177032]I was used to where in The Netherlands every song was played as it was meant to be, the "dirty" version, with no censorship and no [EXPLICIT] labeling. When I got the US version there's a clean and dirty version of every song, lots of albums aren't available in the US, it's pretty bad. If you can go with somewhere like The Netherlands where the laws are a lot less strict. You do need a premium account do that though, so if you're in the US you are "traveling" since you are out of your country. It works out nicely though.[/QUOTE]
I have seen a few songs labeled 'clean version' using my UK Spotify account, but that is because both versions of the song are offered, and not everybody likes to hear swearing in songs (personal tastes, more than anything).
[QUOTE=TehWhale;31177032]I was used to where in The Netherlands every song was played as it was meant to be, the "dirty" version, with no censorship and no [EXPLICIT] labeling. When I got the US version there's a clean and dirty version of every song, lots of albums aren't available in the US, it's pretty bad. If you can go with somewhere like The Netherlands where the laws are a lot less strict. You do need a premium account do that though, so if you're in the US you are "traveling" since you are out of your country. It works out nicely though.[/QUOTE]
Music availability has got to do with how good deals Spotify can strike with various record companies.
Spotify sucks anyway. Grooveshark master race
I'm still waiting for them to send me an invite. Then I'll use it like mad.
[QUOTE=ZpankR;31179156]Spotify sucks anyway. Grooveshark master race[/QUOTE]
Yeah I bet it sucks when you can't afford it.
Thank god for my Swedish proxy.
[QUOTE=ZpankR;31179156]Spotify sucks anyway. Grooveshark master race[/QUOTE]
If we're comparing the free "versions", yes.
BUT if we're comparing the "paying" options, then holy hell you're wrong.
[QUOTE=Sumap;31166872]No.
Even though I live 3km from the U.S
And you too, if i remember correctly[/QUOTE]
I live over the 49th parallel goddamn
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