David Emery OnlineEnd Game: Spotify on the iPhone
Spotify, the cloud-based music service whose catalog includes all of the major labels and lots of indies, is coming soon to the iPhone. […] This is all assuming that Apple/AT&T and other wireless gatekeepers permit the service. Apple has been notoriously resistant to the idea of music subscriptions.
I don’t see why Apple would refuse a potential Spotify app considering they have not only accepted the Last.fm app – which does similar things – they’re using it on their TV ads. However, with the state of wireless connectivity the way it is at the moment – in central London at least – I’m not going to get too excited just yet. I’ve had a go at using assorted streaming music apps on my iPhone and unless you have access to WiFi for at least some of the time they don’t well enough to get mass adoption. Most people aren’t going put up with long buffer times and drop outs half way through songs.
On a slightly unrelated note I find it very strange that in the Spotify desktop app (and replicated in the forthcoming iPhone app) there’s no way to ‘browse’ the music, only to search. I pretty much live in the browse mode in iTunes, and it seems like a much more natural way of getting round a large music catalogue – typically when I’m faced with a new Spotify window I get paralysed by choice; I know there’s practically everything there, so instantly I can’t remember one band I want to listen to to type in the search box.
Visit ➔Save The Music Fan
The music market is down not due to P2P “piracy,” but for four simple reasons: a) stiff competition for the entertainment dollar with formats like video games and movies, both have much larger marketing spends; b) the replacement cycle is over-digital music does not scratch or wear out like past formats; c) one now has the ability to purchase and listen only to the great songs without filler; and d) mass-merchant retailers today carry only the current hits, with little to no catalog.
I often disagree with Terry McBride – he focuses far to much on self promotion for my liking – but I think he’s dead on here.
Via Faßcinated
Visit ➔Super Furry Animals
We’ve just launched the new site for the Super Furry Animals. It’s not a full blown, all singing-all-dancing affair with lots of sections – instead, it’s a very focused site to promote their forthcoming album which is available on March 16th. Every day there’s going to be a new bit of video shot by them on 4 cameras from their studio – they’ve shot over 4 hours of footage that we’re going to put up one episode a day over the next few weeks.
And of course, on the web-dev tip, try resizing your window (finally figured out how to maxmise the size of the video without cropping)…
Visit ➔Artists, Bands and Musicians on Twitter
As a timely companion to my last post, here’s a Google Spreadsheet full of all the bands and labels that are on Twitter.
Visit ➔Despite iTunes Accord, Music Labels Still Fret
…Disagreements over the timing of the changes also resulted in a particularly tense conversation on Christmas Eve between Steven P. Jobs, the chairman and chief executive of Apple, and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the chairman of Sony Music.
A spokesman for Apple declined to comment, as did a representative for Sony Music. But chatter about Mr. Jobs’s combative tone on the call ricocheted around the music industry, and it was regarded as another display of his tough bargaining tactics, made possible by Apple’s position as the dominant seller of music.
When Steve Jobs finally leaves Apple – whether it’s soon or not for a while – I don’t see their being major changes in the kind of products they make or the way they do business. What they will lose, however, is Steve Jobs the negotiator. And from what I’ve heard from people that have dealt with him that will be quite some loss.
Visit ➔Sky Larkin on Dopplr
God darn it, why didn’t I think of putting a band on Dopplr? Considering we already generate iCals for most of our bands this should be a doddle…
Visit ➔Record labels pressure Spotify to restrict service
In a blog post yesterday the startup outlined how it will be removing a number of songs from its catalogue and adding country restrictions to some tracks, which may make them unplayable for many users. The changes are being made because record labels have slapped restrictions on Spotify’s service. It’s a bizarre situation to think of in 2009 but it means that a user could share a track with a friend in another country, but that friend wouldn’t be able to play the track.
It irks me somewhat that people don’t seem to grasp how complicated territory rights are for music. Basically, most releases are dealt with by different labels in different territories, so there’s no way to simply use a track or release worldwide – you have to get agreements with all the appropriate labels involved.
It would be great – and solve so many headaches – if most recorded music was licensed for distribution globally, but it’s just not the case.
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