Spotify
Hey … do we have the future of music right now, on our computers?
There’s a little computer application called Spotify. It pops up on my screen as a sleek box. You can install it in seconds.
And it’s easy to use. In fact, one day soon, Spotify (or something very much like it) will provide all your music needs, anywhere, anytime, at the click of a button. For free.
Spotify is an unlimited music “streaming” service, so you don’t download the music, you listen to it in real time. But it is fast, accessible, you can make up your own, and it has deals with all major labels, giving it a vast (and ever expanding) catalogue to rival iTunes. It is paid for with
15-second commercials every half hour, but unlimited music without commercials is available for a £9.99 per month subscription.
Spotify’s major flaw is that it is purely computer based, so you can’t listen anywhere you want: on your Mp3 player or in your car, for example.
But when mobile phone and Wi-Fi computer broadband technology converge (as they inevitably will) then it really will be ‘game over’ for CDs, records and even downloads (paid for or pirated). There will be no point to iTunes, no function for record stores. There will be nothing but music, sweet music everywhere, a big digital jukebox on the web!
That is, if anybody can afford to make music any more. Whether advertising revenues and subscriptions can support the music business is open to question.
Yet record companies are embracing Spotify in the hope that it will bring an end to rampant illegal downloading.
When the U2 album first leaked online, it was downloaded over 100,000 times in the first 10 hours. But now you can listen to it on Spotify, faster and easier, without breaking the law.
Did I mention it was free?
Leave a Reply