95% of all music downloads are illegal. The UK government caused an uproar this week when it even proposed to ban repeat offenders from the Internet.
Legal ways to acquire and listen to music online include iTunes and sites such as Pandora, last.fm, Imeem, and MySpace. New to add to this list is Spotify.
Spotify is the newest legal way to enjoy music online. Lauded by Big Music as "the future of digital music consumption," the new ad-supported music streaming service Spotify allows users instant access to a large catalogue of music and legally listen to full albums for free.
With an interface similar to iTunes, Spotify will more directly compete with Pandora (and pirated music available on bittorrent sites or file sharing networks).
Spotify users have unlimited access to millions of tracks, with the opportunity to create and share playlists with the option to buy selected tracks. Users search for an artist or song and start listening immediately, without storing the music files on their hard drives.
Consumers have the option to purchase premium monthly memberships (at £10 or $15 per month) and day passes that will not have any ads. There is also a version that is free for consumers, but supported by ads.
All four music major record labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Music and Warner Music Group) and leading indies (Merlin and The Orchard) support Spotify, which launched in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Norway and Sweden in October 2008, an. In Sweden, Spotify has actually surpassed iTunes in terms of revenue levels.
Daniel Ek, Spotify's 25-year-old founder and CEO, says: “We believe that everyone loves music, and we’re thrilled to partner with all major content owners already at launch. This is an exciting step forward in our mission to provide the best possible music experience by allowing people to listen to whatever they want, whenever they want.”
Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, Universal Music Group International said: “Subscription streaming services are the future of digital music consumption. Spotify is an excellent consumer experience and Universal Music Group International is delighted to be a part of the launch.”
More than 2 million users in other countries pay nothing for access to Spotify. July 27, 2009 the company announced a Spotify application for Apple's iPhone (not approved by Apple yet) which will allow Premium subscribers access to the music catalog, stream and even listen to music when the user is not connected to a network.
It has been reported that Spotify will be available in America before the end of this year.
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