Paid Third-Party Apps Built on Spotify May Be on Their Way

Spotify is the best known music streaming service globally and the biggest. But it's still small as a business and it's still struggling to get more people to sign up and especially to pay.

So the company is looking at ways of expanding its current service, which offers on demand music streaming to users for a fixed monthly fee.

Google is holding a press conference next week and plans to announce something "big." Of course, the company is not actually providing any details, it simply titles the conference "What's next for Spotify" and that's that.

Spotify generally shies away from big events like this. To date, even the touted and eagerly awaited US launch, was a small affair.

So Spotify could really have something big to announce. Or it's just looking for hype. Either way, there are several theories concerning what Spotify could be revealing.

A tame, but somewhat plausible theory says that Spotify plans to launch an MP3 store in the US. It already sells MP3s in Europe by itself, so it could be a natural extension.

But the people that use Spotify are exactly the people that don't buy music. Perhaps those using the free tier, which only works on desktops, could be interested in the feature, but it's doubtful that Spotify is making too much money this way.

Another idea is that Spotify is launching an iPad app, which has been missing so far. Granted, it would be a big deal, but not one to warrant the attention perhaps.

There is another theory that makes more sense and seems more on the scale that would make Spotify go to the trouble of arranging a big press conference.

Apparently, Spotify may extend its API and may start enabling developers to tap into its vast library of songs and, crucially, sell applications. At the moment, developers can access songs on Spotify but their apps must be free.

A commercial API would enable anyone to build on top of Spotify. Spotify would benefit since users will still need a subscription to access the music. And it may also start making some money from other third-party developers.