It's about damn time, Spotify! Earlier this week, Spotify placed some ads searching for US-based staff, confirming the rumors that they are planning to expand to the United States. Spotify is indeed planning on making the move to the US in late 2009.
Spotify has been wildly successful in Europe since its start up, but it hasn't generated much profit. It has three account levels: free, pay-per-day, and premium. Free users hear commercials, but not as frequently as regular FM radio stations.
Pay-per-day users pay a small fee to listen to music with advertisements, while premium users pay a monthly fee and are graced with an ad-free listening experience, as well as higher-quality music.
Coming to the States, Spotify will face competition from other music streaming sites, such as Pandora and Grooveshark. Pandora recommends music based on your selections, while Grooveshark allows you to build custom playlists. Unlike these service, Spotify does a bit of both.
Spotify allows users to listen to radio stations based on genres, but it also allows them to build playlists from music in the Spotify database.
While Spotify faces some stiff competition, especially from the likes of Pandora, it isn't entirely unprepared.
Spotify has just recently paired up with 7digital.com to offer a music downloading service. With this new downloading service, users will be able to purchase an entire playlist in one location, without having to buy individuals songs form iTunes or another digital music source. Spotify has turned into a one stop shop: you can listen, browse, create playlists, and buy.
Spotify also plans to release mobile phone applications that allow users to take the service with them away from their computers. After it was released, the Pandora iPhone application was one of the top downloads in the App Store. If Spotify makes an iPhone application available to its users, the service may gain a larger following.
Daniel Ek, co-founder of Spotify, cautions that the move to the US may not be possible until early 2010 due to the recession. Either way, it's about time, and I'm excited!