Spotify, the largest and fastest growing music service of its kind, is still continuing to gain popularity since its July 14 release in the U.S. Spotify is a new way to manage music, discover new tracks and share songs and playlists with friends.
In a press release from July, Spotify said it was launched in Sweden in 2008 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon “out of a desire to develop a better, more convenient and legal alternative to music piracy.” As of April 2011, it was the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe.
When it made its way to the U.S., Spotify had more than 10 million registered users and more than 1.6 million paying subscribers across seven countries in Europe; the U.S. marked the eighth territory.
This online database gives listeners instant access to a library of more than 15 million streaming songs. They can create and share playlists with friends via Facebook, Twitter, email and other social media platforms.
Senior Deborah Hill said she listens to Spotify nearly every time she is on the computer.
“With Pandora you put in a song you like and it finds similar songs to play or plays other songs from the album…Where with Spotify it lists all of the songs in the album,” Hill said. “I like that better because you can look for specific songs/artists you want. Also, if you connect your Spotify account to your Facebook you can look at what all of your friends are listening to, which I love because so many of my friends have amazing taste in music, so it is great being able to look at what albums they think are best.”
During its growth throughout various countries, Spotify caught the eye of many well-known experts.
“[Spotify is] the first streaming music service I have used that shares three qualities that I think most consumers are seeking — it has a huge catalog, an attractive and simple user interface, and it’s legal,” BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said in a press release.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has also spoken out about the success of Spotify and partnered the company with Facebook’s latest Open Graph applications platform. Facebook members can join Spotify using their existing Facebook login information and then constantly share the music they are listening to with their online friends. Since announcing its partnership with Facebook on Sept. 22, Spotify has gained more than 4 million new users.
“I like Spotify because I can select any artist I want and have every single album they’ve ever made,” Hill said. “It also has new release albums. I also like it because there are a lot of CDs I want to buy, but only certain songs that I like from them … so this way I get to listen to all my favorite music and I only have to pay $4.99 a month, which I wasn’t wanting to do at first, but when you put it into perspective it’s a pretty good deal.”
