Exciting times for music lovers

Jul 30 2009 By Herb Kim, The Journal

LAST week we looked at how Apple's App Store has been instrumental in the success of the company's iPhone.

A few days on and it seems another firm’s future could hinge upon its acceptance to the online shop.

Music-streaming service Spotify, which launched in the UK and Europe earlier this year, lets you listen to your choice of millions of music tracks, rather like an online jukebox.

Things have been going remarkably well so far for the Stockholm-based firm. Just over a month after coming out of private beta mode the service had picked up more than a million users, a number that has risen to more than two million in the UK and six million in Europe.

Although there was concern about the initially limited music library, Spotify’s founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon have done a remarkable job of convincing major record labels to make their tunes available. Many of the gaps have since been filled, giving Spotify a library close to rivalling that of iTunes.

Now Spotify, which to date has only been available on computers, has submitted an application for a mobile version to be made available as an ‘app’ (an application) for the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Doing so was a no-brainer for the guys at Spotify, and the app itself looks fantastic. It lets you do everything you can on the browser-based version and, better still, it lets you play tracks from playlists when you’re offline, so you can listen to them if you’re on the Metro or a plane. The only downside is that it will only be available to those who subscribe to Spotify’s premium service, charged at £9.99 per month.

If Spotify gets accepted into the App Store there’s little doubt it would become one of the most popular apps available on the iPhone. But it’s a big ‘if’, and the interesting question is will Apple decide to let Spotify into the App Store or not?

If it does allow the app in, Apple risks losing customers from its iTunes service. If it rejects the request, on the other hand, it could face a backlash from the eight million or so people already infatuated with Spotify.

Just as the App Store helped the iPhone become such as success, a green light from Apple will help Spofity continue its meteoric rise. With another mobile version due out soon for the Android mobile platform and a US launch on the horizon, it looks like being another exciting few months ahead for the Scandinavian music lovers.

Herb Kim is chief executive of Codeworks, the North East’s centre for digital innovation