Report: Spotify “Back To Square One” In U.S.

Posted by Bram Teitelman on Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 10:15 am

Internet Radio

YouTube Preview ImageWhile internet radio company Pandora has been steadily gaining in popularity in the States, many European music fans have been getting their online music fix via Spotify. The service, which offers 8 million tracks, has been met with glowing reviews due to its interface, accessibility, and ease of use. Many music fans were looking forward to later this year, when the service was set to debut in the United States. Except now, that might not happen.  According to Billboard.biz, the company’s negotiations with the major labels have broken down.

It’s a familiar chorus for Spotify. They were initially supposed to launch in the States last year. At issue is the current European model of the service. Users can stream unlimited music for free under an ad-supported model. No other service currently offers that. Of course their goal is to get users to upgrade to the paid version, which has no ads and has easier mobile access. It seems like that model is going to have to change to get the majors to play ball with Spotify though, which has been valued at $250 million. According to Billboard, CEO Daniel Ek has moved to New York to close out the label negotiations. For the company to launch in the United States in 2010, like they’ve promised, will take some serious bargaining, but Billboard’s sources claim that the company is open to short term deals that will allow a basic version of Spotify to launch by the end of the year that could evolve to match the wishes of the major labels.

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  • http://www.twitter.com/stabitha Stabitha

    I’d just like to take this moment to sing the praises of Rdio. I took it for a test drive for 10 days and fell completely in love with it, and am now a subscriber. I never thought I’d pay any money for music I can’t own, but the interface and the library are so impressive that I wanted to.

    The ad supported model has already proven itself unsustainable, and while I understand that Spotify’s UI and UX are world-class, I don’t get why they’re insisting on trying to find a way to make it work in the US.

  • http://www.themusicvoid.com/ The Music Void

    Last week, there was a lot of news concerning Spotify resulting from some bogus information that was fed to the industry press. I guess some people in the business don’t want to make things easy for them to launch in the US. But why?

    Read more here on this here – http://www.themusicvoid.com/2010/08/who%E2%80%99s-afriad-of-spotify/

  • Pingback: Spotify Close To Finally Coming To The U.S. | Metal Insider

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