Spotify Launches Download Service and iPod Syncing in Europe

[MacRumors]

Popular European music streaming service Spotify today announced a major new initiative to take on Apple's iTunes, launching a new download service and software support for syncing music to non-iOS iPods.

You've been telling us how much you love discovering, sharing and talking about music in Spotify - and you've created well over 200 million playlists to prove it. But you've also said you're listening to a huge amount of music on your iPods, and that getting your Spotify playlists onto them as MP3s has been a serious hassle, forcing you to juggle multiple music players. That's until now...

As of today, Spotify is making it possible for everyone to take their playlists with them in one lean, green music machine.

The new download service allows users to purchase entire playlists with a single click, bundling tracks to lower costs to as little as 50p per song. The Spotify software also now directly syncs with all iPod classic, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle models, with the device simply showing up in the Spotify sidebar when connected via USB.

Finally, Spotify has opened up its iPhone and Android apps to all Spotify users, expanding on the original Premium access to offer to all users support for wireless syncing of playlists.

Spotify has missed a number goal dates for launching its service in the United States as it has struggled to reach agreements with major music labels. The company has, however, finally struck deals with EMI and Sony, moving it closer to securing the consent of the four major labels essentially required to debut in the U.S. Universal and Warner Music represent the two major labels not yet on board with Spotify's plans.

Article Link: Spotify Launches Download Service and iPod Syncing in Europe

 

[Phil A.]

A couple of important things this article misses:

1) Support for non iOS devices is limited to songs you've bought through the download service or MP3s you already own, i.e. you can only sync songs you've purchased, not offline streaming playlists like you can on iOS if you are a premium member

2) Although non premium members can now access the iOS application, they'll only be able to play songs that they've purchased through the download service or MP3s they already own (i.e. no streaming or offline playlists)

So all this update really does is allow users to buy music from an alternative source to Amazon, iTunes, etc and then sync it to an iPod or iOS device. Hardly revolutionary

 

[daneoni]

I'll stick with iTunes/Amazon.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Creeper-Stalker-Pod People-Drones can mimic their heroes: other no-ones.

 

[roadbloc]

Old news. I posted this in the Apple Industry and Internet Discussion forum.

 

[dethmaShine]

If Spotify was £19.99 a year, I'd be using it. £9.99/month is too expensive in my opinion.

 

[DPH]

If Spotify was £19.99 a year, I'd be using it. £9.99/month is too expensive in my opinion.

Are you insane? What drugs do you use? I wanna test it...

 

[roadbloc]

If Spotify was £19.99 a year, I'd be using it. £9.99/month is too expensive in my opinion.

What? Are you mad? It's well worth it. An absolute steal. I've paid for it when my music collection has been out of action. A total life saver, and a brilliant service at great value.

 

[57004]

Cool that I can now use it on my iPhone.

But I'm still waiting for a REAL iPad client I know the iPhone one works on the iPad but it is really crappy on the iPad. If there was an iPad client I'd still be a premium subscriber anyway.

I also agree it's not expensive by the way, I'd much rather rent (almost) ALL music in the world for 10 euro a month than buy 1 album per month on iTunes for the same price.

 

[ciTiger]

Not worth it...

These things are way too expensive!

 

[iZac]

Thing is, although Spotify is good for very generally finding "new music", but i've found it pretty limited in complete content. I've often found bands I'm interested in have only one or two albums, and it lists bizarre or unofficial remixes with them. It kind of feels like all the music was just uploaded by a bunch of users rather than a full central service. If you're looking to fully explore a bands discography, you're best of doing a wiki search and getting it via alternate methods.

 

[jowie]

Spotify really needs something like Genius Playlists. Its "radio" feature is really lame. But it's great for finding the odd track or album you really want to listen to.

 

[ridley182]

Apple is so blocking this (iPod syncing).

 

[MacMan86]

Apple is so blocking this (iPod syncing).

No. They won't.

You're confusing this with the Palm Pre fiasco. The Palm Pre pretended to be an iPod so that iTunes would sync with it - not cool.

What Spotify is doing is similar to what hundred of apps before it have done: access an iPod's media storage. Those apps have never been touched by Apple (not to mention, there's very little Apple can do).
Examples: Senuti, Music Rescue, iPod Rip etc.

 

[Sabenth]

i am in the uk and i still have no real use for this. They seem too be trying too bring back what they got rid of in the first place.

 

[Dr McKay]

If Spotify was £19.99 a year, I'd be using it. £9.99/month is too expensive in my opinion.

If you decided to acquire less than 10 songs a month, with iTunes, then yes. Spotify isn't for you.

But for me, and most people, having access to Spotify for £10 a month is a steal. I've been a member for about 8 months, and yes while that means Ive spent £80 with them, Ive got music playlists that span hundreds of songs.

If I'd gone solely iTunes or such, and paid £1 for each song. Id be worse off by hundreds of pounds.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Spotify doesn't have Ping so forget it!

But seriously, I think I will stick with itunes. First of all I don't care to spend a bunch of time switching over. Secondly the appeal of an itunes alternative seems to be saving some money for the music. I already do this by purchasing physical CDs for less than itunes sells them. And I have the physical CD to reimport if I decide to change the bit rate or file format I am using. No need to repurchase an "upgrade" file.

I think for a lot of people itunes is synonymous with the store. For me the store is a place I sample songs and occasionally shop but for me the itunes store is just a small part of itunes as a whole.

Besides music I do use itunes for TV show purchases now instead of DVDs and of course apps. I don't buy many apps though.

 

[Daveoc64]

I think this announcement is a bit bizarre.

It's not really giving anyone anything other than a bulk discount if you buy a lot of MP3s (i.e. a playlist full of them) from them in one go. The discounts are very competitive.

Playlists on Spotify are obviously popular, given that they are pretty much the only way to organise your Music on the service. I don't think that means that people want to buy those playlists outright though.

Offering some MP3 downloads as part of the £9.99/€9.99 "Spotify Premium" would have been a pretty big announcement. As a user of Spotify Premium, the only thing I miss is not being able to put music onto my iPod classic.

 

[dethmaShine]

Are you insane? What drugs do you use? I wanna test it...

What? Are you mad? It's well worth it. An absolute steal. I've paid for it when my music collection has been out of action. A total life saver, and a brilliant service at great value.

Geez relax.

It's not that I don't pay for music. I have tonnes of CD's/DVD's and vinyls in my collection. It's just that I though £9.99 was too much for something like this.

But if in your opinion, it isn't, then I think I need to remeasure the metrics. £9.99 is not a big deal for me. It's just that I never thought it was reasonable.

But fair enough, I'll rethink.

 

[motulist]

If you decided to acquire less than 10 songs a month, with iTunes, then yes. Spotify isn't for you.

But for me, and most people, having access to Spotify for £10 a month is a steal. I've been a member for about 8 months, and yes while that means Ive spent £80 with them, Ive got music playlists that span hundreds of songs.

If I'd gone solely iTunes or such, and paid £1 for each song. Id be worse off by hundreds of pounds.

Until spotify changes its business model or closes altogether, after which all the money you put into music has now disappeared and you have no music.

 

[Daveoc64]

Until spotify changes its business model or closes altogether, after which all the money you put into music has now disappeared and you have no music.

Do you pay for Cable/Satellite TV?

A lot of people do.

Paying for Spotify is like paying for Cable TV instead of buying shows on DVD.

You don't get to keep anything after you cancel your subscription with either model - you are paying to use the service for one month, nothing more.

 

[SBlue1]

IBut for me, and most people, having access to Spotify for £10 a month is a steal.

Most people? Speak for yourself please. There are people like me who think 10$ a month is way too much. A month! Every month! Why??? I don't see a use. But then again, I will speak for myself only.

If I wanna discover new music I listen to radio. Its for free. Or I use genius or ask friends.

 

[motulist]

Do you pay for Cable/Satellite TV?

A lot of people do.

Paying for Spotify is like paying for Cable TV instead of buying shows on DVD.

You don't get to keep anything after you cancel your subscription

I don't pay for cable or satellite TV, but even if I did, the comparison of music watching to tv watching is not valid. Most people like to listen to a certain bunch of songs over and over and over again, but VERY few people watch the same tv show more than twice at most. 99% of TV watching enjoyment comes from watching NEW tv shows, therefore it makes sense to pay money to constantly "rent" all the new episodes and not care about if you have any ability to re-watch most old episodes. That's not at all how music works.

 

[Narrie]

I love Spotify!

 

[shaunp]

Spotify's Days are Numbered

As much as I love Spotify ultimately it's days are numbered and it won't be around for much longer in it's current form - it's simply too good. Baulk about the £10 per month price if you like, but for me it's perfect - I don't actually need to buy any more music and before this I was buying around 4 CD's a month.

Spotify will be bought out and video streaming services will be added to the music services. If I could have a single account for streaming both video and music at a reasonable cost (£20 per month, or there abouts), I'd sign up right now.

Okay not everyone will agree some people will always want to own the physical stuff but I'm beyond that. As much as the cloud is being hyped to death, this is the one place I would really welcome it - direct streaming of any content I want into my house.