Daniel Ek, chief executive of the music streaming service Spotify, spoke to a crowd of 2,000 SXSW attendees on Tuesday - virtually none of whom are legally allowed to use his service. Until it successfully navigates the lions den of U.S. licensing laws, the largest music market in the world will be closed to Spotify. Judging by the response Ek got at SXSW, Apple had better hope that day never comes.
“I believe that if music could legally be on any device you wanted and it was really easy to get, then the music industry would be radically bigger," Ek said. Spotify is a client application that gives you access to almost 10 million tracks and lets you share playlists with other users. You can also use it to manage your music library. “Playlists are the new mix tape of 2010", Ek said.
Launched in October 2008, Spotify now has more than seven million users and can be used--legally--in Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Of that number, 325,000 pay a monthly fee for enhanced services. The rest get the service for free. Spotify can run on a PC, but there are also versions for the iPhone and Android.
“The music industry and the technology industry are aligned for the first time," said the 26-year-old Ek. He said it used to take six months to a year to create an application for a mobile device, and even then you would need to create multiple versions for every model of feature phone. The advances in the iPhone OS, Android, and BlackBerry make that a lot easier these days. “I love all the different app stores we are seeing now," Ek said.
Spotify uses a peer-to-peer architecture, mostly to improve performance for the end user. Files can be transferred over local networks to avoid always hitting a central server. Even so, Ek says Spotify alone consumes more Internet bandwidth than the entire nation of Sweden. “Most of Spotify's infrastructure is in the UK. “ Ek said. “If we had to stream all of that, it would take all of the broadband capacity of Sweden, which wouldn't work."
“I believe that if music could legally be on any device you wanted and it was really easy to get, then the music industry would be radically bigger," Ek said. Spotify is a client application that gives you access to almost 10 million tracks and lets you share playlists with other users. You can also use it to manage your music library. “Playlists are the new mix tape of 2010", Ek said.
Launched in October 2008, Spotify now has more than seven million users and can be used--legally--in Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Of that number, 325,000 pay a monthly fee for enhanced services. The rest get the service for free. Spotify can run on a PC, but there are also versions for the iPhone and Android.
“The music industry and the technology industry are aligned for the first time," said the 26-year-old Ek. He said it used to take six months to a year to create an application for a mobile device, and even then you would need to create multiple versions for every model of feature phone. The advances in the iPhone OS, Android, and BlackBerry make that a lot easier these days. “I love all the different app stores we are seeing now," Ek said.
Spotify uses a peer-to-peer architecture, mostly to improve performance for the end user. Files can be transferred over local networks to avoid always hitting a central server. Even so, Ek says Spotify alone consumes more Internet bandwidth than the entire nation of Sweden. “Most of Spotify's infrastructure is in the UK. “ Ek said. “If we had to stream all of that, it would take all of the broadband capacity of Sweden, which wouldn't work."
