Spotify iPad app has touch of class
Spotify, the music streaming service, has followed rivals MOG and Rdio and finally released an iPad app, but it’s been worth the wait.
The app features fast switching between different tracks, almost full-screen album art and intuitive navigation for swiping through information about artists and opening panes on similar artists. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Since its integration with Facebook, MOG, the music streaming service, has reached 160,000 monthly average users, a 264 percent growth for the month of October, Venture Beat reports.
Apple is planning to update its retail store to allow customers to buy items through an app, BGR reports. The update is supposed to start on November 3rd. Read more
Spotify hits 2m subscribers
Spotify’s launch in the US has helped to boost its subscriber numbers by more than 400,000 in three months, according to its chief executive. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Facebook is planning to launch its long-anticipated music service next month with Spotify, MOG and Rdio as three of the company’s partners, Mashable reports. Even though users will be able to listen to music on Facebook.com, the social network will not directly host or stream any of the music, relying instead on its partners to provide the content. Read more
Spotify has stayed silent about the impact of Apple’s new subscription plans, perhaps because it was too busy negotiating $100m in new funding, but MOG has now joined the list of digital media start-ups and venerable publishers expressing consternation and confusion.
“From a principle perspective, I have a problem,” says CEO David Hyman. “We’ve spent years building this, and invested millions. It’s not clear to me why they deserve a bigger piece of my business than I get. It doesn’t feel right at all.” Read more
Music in the air
Time to throw out the 78s, LPs, CDs, cassettes and even your digital downloads? With so many services offering to stream your favourite songs over the internet and store playlists now, there seems no need for a permanent record collection. After exploring cloud gaming last week, the Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section this week looks at cloud music services, ahead of the inevitable entry of Google and Apple. Read more
*other music streaming services are available
Excitement about Spotify, and more recently MOG, has remained at boiling point for months now, as the music streaming sites raise new funds and gear up for international expansion.
But although Spotify and MOG have attracted the most hype, new rivals – from start-ups Deezer and Grooveshark, to Sky Songs and Virgin Media’s long-awaited MusicFish – are emerging all the time.
In the UK, We7 has been quietly building its offering after launching here around the same time as Spotify in late 2008.
Some 3m people now use its free, ad-supported site. Last month saw a new £4.99-a-month ad-free service, followed today by the release of a £9.99 monthly “Premium+” offering that adds mobile access to its library of millions of tracks. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
