14 DAY TRIAL // Spotify has announced its presence in the United States and has released the first official Spotify iPhone application as a free download from the iTunes App Store.
Spotify is said to be the fastest growing service of its kind.
It gives users buffering-free, on-demand access to a library of more than 15 million songs, as well as the ability to import the MP3s they already own with a single click.
Launched in Sweden three years ago, Spotify is the brainchild of Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, who had this immense desire to develop a better, more convenient and legal alternative to music piracy.
Thus, Spotify was born. It is now the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe with more than 10 million registered users and more than 1.6 million paying subscribers across 7 countries in Europe.
The US is now the 8th territory Spotify wants to make a splash in.
During the invite-only beta phase, Spotify users will benefit from three services.
Spotify Free, an invite-based service, lets you enjoy on-demand, buffer-free access to over 15 million songs on your computer, as well as social features, the ability to manage your own music files, and syncing capabilities (iPod supportrd). Since it’s free, there will be occasional advertising, according to the developers.
Spotify Unlimited nabs you all the special features of the free service with no ads, for only $4.99 a month.
Finally, you have Spotify Premium. Described as “the all-singing, all-dancing, top-of-the-range Spotify experience,” this plan lets you listen online or offline, on your computer or your mobile device, enhanced sound quality and access to exclusive content, competitions and special offers, “and a whole heap of other devices,” according to Spotify.
Premium costs $9.99 a month which, according to the people at Spotify, is “the equivalent of a few fancy coffees”.
Since many of those reading these lines are holding an iDevice in their pocket, we’re here to inform that Spotify iOS costs nothing, and requires an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 3.0 or later.
In other words, all iOS portables ever released by Apple are supported.