We’ve covered Spotify in some detail in the past, and the streaming music service “in the cloud” continues to capture interest in the U.S. – even as it continues to try to negotiate rights deals to actually launch its service here. Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek made a typical tech “star” turn at the South by Southwest show, telling an audience of 2000 attendees its hoping it can bring its service – available today in Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. – to the U.S. someday, calling for a tech/creative alliance to make it happen. Not to be outdone, other competitors, such as MOG, used the same show to roll out mobile music apps of their own.
PC World covered Spotify CEO Ek’s speech, with highlights including:
“The music industry and the technology industry are aligned for the first time,” said the 26-year-old Ek. He said it used to take six months to a year to create an application for a mobile device, and even then you would need to create multiple versions for every model of feature phone. The advances in the iPhone OS, Android, and BlackBerry make that a lot easier these days. “I love all the different app stores we are seeing now,” Ek said.
The Connected Planet take, Rich Karpinski:
The market definitely seems to be at a tipping point with online music. The iPod/ITunes and iPhone/App Store combos aren’t going anywhere, but as music start-ups start to really take advantage of Android and even the ability of the iPod/iPhone to run mobile app versions of their services, hardware is going to become less of an issue. That, in turn, will allow consumers to move away from hardware/software lock-in, for the first time opening up the market for mobile music services whose primary appeal is simply that they have appealing functionality and a good supply of content. Which would seem to have to worry Apple. But while the company has certainly delayed approving music streaming mobile apps, companies like Spotify, MOG and Rhapsody appear to be holding out hope they can eventually build both iPhone and Android versions of their apps.
Which leaves, interestingly enough, Microsoft. I’ve mentioned before I’m a Zune and Zune pass user, but the platform appears to be in some trouble, much to my dismay. It’s had a recent run of music “disappearing” from its platform (scan this Google search) – the Zune platform is either suffering from a or some expired licensing deals. That leaves them in the position of having an existing streaming service tied to its Zune hardware (and suffering some growing pains) and the next version of Zune Pass, promised to be available for the next version of Windows Mobile, tied to a mobile OS platform that is rapidly being subsumed by the iPhone and Android.
How will the “music-in-the-sky” market play out? It remains to be seen. Apple still holds the wildcard of launching an iPod/iPhone streaming service that would probably kill most if not all competitors. Until then, it’s going to be mostly a tease-and-test sort of market.
That’s our take on this, let us know what you think in the comments below: