Via Gigaom
Spotify is launching in Germany within the next two weeks, according to a report by German tech blog Netzwertig.com. The streaming service has been gearing up for a launch in the country for a while, and most recently hired a local PR representative. But with Germany, Spotify is entering a market that has proven to be challenging for some.
Netzwertig was told by multiple sources that Spotify’s launch in Germany will happen within two weeks, with one person pointing to 03/13 as a likely launch date. The blog wasn’t able to get a confirmation from the company. However, there are other signs pointing to a timely launch as well: the company already has an office in Berlin, and itrecently hired Groupon’s former German PR manager to run public relations for the German-language market.
Via The music giant is preparing to break into Australia’s busy streaming music scene.
Internationally Spotify is one of the most popular all-you-can-eat subscription music services. It has been seen as a game-changer overseas and such a high-profile service will certain help kick-start the Australian market which has seen a flood of new players in the last 12 months. Spotify recently added the option of 320 kbps streaming to mobiles to match its 320 kbps desktop service, which should placate music lovers concerned about sound quality.
Spotify communications manager Jim Butcher is in Australia this week as part of the advanced guard for a local rollout later this year. He wouldn’t elaborate on the timing of Spotify’s Australian rollout during our chat, but sources tell me that it will be sooner rather than later.
Very interesting article, by BusinessModelsInc
Traditional Record Label Model
No industry is changing as rapid as the music industry. In the past, the record companies fully determined which artists were launched national or international. The production costs, the promotional costs and the distribution costs for an album were significant. The music industry lived for the blockbusters with huge sales from a handful of talents. The core business of a record company was to discover and to launch new talent. In the last ten years, this has all changed. The record companies could not keep up with the rapid developments in the market and lost considerable ground to newcomers.
Piracy
Digitization has made it easier to exchange music. In 2001, applications like BitTorrent, Napster and The Pirate Bay made their entrance in the market. These applications were pioneers in a new era. They presented a new business model in the music industry, the piracy model. Piracy was easy and “for free”, which led to a massive download movement. Users do not pay for copyrighted music and become “pirates” leaving both the artists and record companies empty-handed.
Spotify
Spotify makes music available in legal way by providing (free) access to songs and albums. The Spotify business model (access to music) challenges the business model of iTunes (owning music). Spotify provides music to anyone with an Internet access, via your PC or your mobile device, for free. The Spotify model is based on “music anytime, anyhow, anywhere”. The user determines whether he or she takes the free version (with advertising) or the premium version (without advertising). Spotify introduced the model of “providing access to music”, with or without advertising.
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The Future
There is no player in the music industry, which has succeeded in creating a mass market where users once again pay for music. No player can yet claim to be the ‘global standard’. It will be exciting to see which one of the players in the music industry will elevate themselves to become ‘the Facebook of the digital music industry’. Spotify has a good chance.
Via CBS
Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48.
Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told reporters outside the Beverly Hilton that Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. in her room on the fourth floor of the hotel. Her body remained there and Beverly Hills detectives were investigating.
“There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent at this time,” Rosen said.
Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the cause of her death was unknown.
Rosen said police received a 911 call from hotel security about Houston at 3:43 p.m. Saturday. Paramedics who were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate the singer, he said.
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Whitney Houston (on Spotify)
Top albums
Whitney Houston – The Essential Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston – Together Cissy and Whitney Houston
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Aretha Frankin
“I just can’t talk about it now. It’s so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn’t believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen. My heart goes out to Cissy, her daughter Bobbi Kris, her family and Bobby.”
Current President of the United States, Barack Obama, and his campaign are extremely active on the internet. The President enjoys music as well, as he has apparently joined Spotify. The playlist, which is being dubbed the “official 2012 campaign playlist”, includes tracks picked by Obama’s campaign staff, along with a few of his favorites.
You can follow the President’s Spotify playlist:
Super Bowl XLVI is an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2011 season. It will be the 42nd annual championship game of the modern-era NFL and will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kickoff time is scheduled for approximately 6:30 p.m. EST (23:30 UTC) on Sunday, February 5, 2012. This will be the first Super Bowl to be played in Indianapolis, and the first time in the history of the game it will be played in consecutive years in a retractable roof stadium. This will also be only the fourth time that the Super Bowl is played in a cold-weather city, after Detroit’s hosting of XVI and XL as well as Minneapolis’s hosting of XXVI. Downtown Indianapolis, the home of Lucas Oil Stadium, will feature an outdoor Super Bowl Village and other programs at the Indiana Convention Center. [wiki]
Enjoy the Super Bowl on Spotify:
Various Artists – Superbowl 2012
Various Artists – Superbowl Rock Anthems 2012
Various Artists – Superbowl Superstars 2012
The cold spell in The Netherlands in late January and early February 2012 has heightened the expectation of a 2012 Elfstedentocht. Last time this tour took place was in 1997.
Share your favourite Elfstedentocht-songs in this collaborative spotify playlist:
The Elfstedentocht (or, in West Frisian, Alvestêdetocht, English translation: “Eleven Cities Tour”), at 200 km, is the world’s largest and longest speed skating competition and leisure skating tour, and is held in the province of Friesland, Netherlands only when the ice along the entire course is 15 cm thick. [wiki]
Funny!
The new album by Moss (Ornaments) is on Spotify as the new album by Ornaments (Moss)
Via Financial Times
No wonder the record labels are sounding much more positive about music subscription services. Spotify is starting to reap the benefits of its oft-doubted “freemium” business model.
After hitting 2.5m subscribers in November, the Anglo-Swedish digital music service has now reached 3m, with more than 20 per cent of its active user base paying every month to banish advertisements or listen on smartphones.
That ratio is up from 15 per cent in March last year, when Spotify crossed 1m subscribers. The latest figures mean it’s added another million since September’s 2m milestone, suggesting its growth rate is accelereating.
“We have achieved some pretty great results in terms of the ratio of paid users,” Ken Parks, Spotify’s chief content officer and US managing director, told the FT. “We have an enormous internal effort to drive conversion and engagement with the service. We are very focused on growing in our existing 12 markets as well as expanding in other markets.”
Ensuring that enough free users start subscribing is crucial to making the economics of Spotify’s business work, due to the costs of paying out royalties to labels and publishers every time a song is played, regardless of whether the user is paying.
[...]
“This is a healthy model. As it scales it gets better for everybody,” said Mr Parks, adding that half of Spotify’s paying customers are under 30. “That is a remarkable number of people who are generally hard to monetise.”
Earlier this week, record label executives said that subscription services such as Spotify, Deezer and Rhapsody were finally helping to offset declining CD sales and put the music industry back onto a growth footing by next year.
Via Spotify
We are delighted to see great applications created by other developers using the Spotify Platform. We’re really impressed by one that’s been released this week, SpotON Radio , a third-party radio application for iOS devices.
SpotON Radio allows you to create personalized radio stations on your iOS device. These stations mix your Spotify favourite tracks with similar songs. Just download the application to your iOS device, login with your Spotify or Facebook credentials and start discovering new music!
These are some other features that SpotON Radio offers:
- Create personalized radio stations based on any artist
- Like and dislike songs to fine tune your stations entirely to your own taste
- Add new tracks or export the entire stations’ history directly into your Spotify playlists
- You can skip as many songs as you like
It’s a great way to find new music similar to your own taste! And it is all powered by Spotify’s huge music catalogue and EchoNest’s song recommendation engine.
Spotify Premium subscribers can enjoy SpotON Radio right now. Head over to the App Store to get it.
