6 Million tracks on my iPhone...
Monday, September 7, 2009 at 9:35AM 
If there's one application I'd have bet money on not being approved by Apple in the iPhone App Store it's Spotify.
Some background...
For non-european readers, Spotify is a Swedish based music service that's been operating in Europe for quite a while now, slowly building up quite a following, not just from the consumers but also the major record labels. The service offers both free and subscription based music from a huge playlist of over six million songs. You can stream these songs for free via a dedicated Spotify client and this model is supported with what used to be the occasional ad, although they seem to be getting more aggressive in the number of ads they play. Still no where near the number of ads you'd hear on a commercial radio station. All the songs are high quality "using Ogg Vorbis q5 codec which streams at approximately 160kb/s. Premium subscribers can enable higher bit rate streaming at 320 kb/s" and it's possible to setup collaborative playlists and share links to songs or playlists.
You can also subscribe to a Premium service to remove the ads and get the higher bitrate material. Interestingly, the choice of songs remain the same.
Up to now resisted the temptation to upgrade to the premium service as I was fine with the ads (and to be honest, I didn't realise the higher bitrate option was included. However, that all changed this morning when I woke up to the announcement that the Spotify application was now available for the iPhone/iPod touch from the App store. The concept of having unlimited access to over six million songs on your mobile device is pretty mind blowing. After using the desktop client for a couple of months, I have to admit that the model is pretty compelling.
Now we knew the app had been approved several weeks ago but few details were known about it. The timing of the release gives me cause to wonder as Apples special "Music related" event and announcements happen in just two short days. But more of that later.
Anyone can download the app for free BUT you need to be a premium subscriber to use it. Luckily, you can subscribe for a day for only 99p (Update - the Day Pass won't work with the iPhone app - Thanks @SteveWiles) or for a month for £9.99 which you can cancel at any time. There is also an annual subscription for £119.88.
Still, I was on the fence about the whole streaming model and the value proposition of the premium model. Great if you have ubiquitous WiFi but here in the UK, most of the time when I'm out and about, I'm lucky to get an Edge signal, never mind WiFi. The thought of paying for the service but not being able to use it in the absence of WiFi or 3G didn't really sit well with me.
But Spotify for iPhone has a sucker punch! ?
The iPhone application allows you to cache up to 3,333 spotify songs offline.
Holy moly!! Apple are letting Spotify copy up to 3,333 songs from the subscription service to your iPhone so even without any Edge, 3G or WiFi, you can still listen to music. The caching is done via the client when you're connected to WiFi.
It's a deal!
So in the interests of my readers:-) I stumped up the £9.99 to try it for a month.
As I'm already a Spotify free subscriber, it was simply a matter of firing up the Spotify client, clicking an upgrade button and the simplest signup process I've ever done. Seriously, it took only as long as typing in my credit card details and it was done - super slick and easy - just how it should be.
Downloaded the Application onto the iPhone and logged in and all my Spotify playlists appeared in the client. Selected one to sync and straight away the songs were downloaded. I sync'd Angles by Dan le Sac, an album I nearly bought last week!
The player is simple and easy to use. Basic play controls and Album art appear, and you can get more information on the artist and album by pressing the i button in the top corner. This takes you to other tracks the artist has on Spotify and options to add the track to a playlist. There's a search option for tracks, albums and artists. Couldn't see anyway to make a playlist on the iPhone client though?
So with my client installed, an album cached and a track playing over WiFi, I left the house to jump in the car and go the Gym.
Now before I proceed, let me just state that the Spotify app is amazing and the model it presents is a complete game changer. That being said, there are limitations to the model and I'm pointing out these limitations to illustrate why perhaps it's really not that surprising that Apple let the app be approved.
The first limitation is that the song I was playing stopped once I left the WiFi zone. I couldn't get an Edge or 3G signal and playback was interrupted - no real big surprise there. Baring in mind that this was on the morning of the launch and the Spotify servers are most likely getting hammered, I'd leave it a few days before I'd state that you couldn't use the streaming service over Edge. I did find a 3G signal and it was better but still not fluid playback. The quality is great by the way. Anyway, this is mitigated by the fact I had my cached playlist downloaded to the device so I could play that.
Excellent!
But....
The other big limitation for me was the fact that only Apple applications can do background processing, so to have your Spotify playlist playing, the Spotify app must be running as the foreground app. As I see it, at least in the way I use my iPhone with email and twitter (not whilst driving I have to say) this is a major limitation in the usage of the Spotify app. Even in the car, it would mean I couldn't use Spotify and my TomTom SatNav at the same time.
This is where I could see Apple coming in and stealing the Spotify model (if the record companies allow them) by creating a similar service, completely integrated into iTunes and with an iPhone/iPod touch app with full background processing. All the familiar (advanced) integration with the iPhone headset buttons and voice control. Apple could kill the Spotify service dead in it's tracks if it wanted too.
You also have to consider that Apple have approved the application before the Spotify service is rolled out to the US. Again, good timing before launching a comparable but deeply integrated service of their own.
I say again, it's really interesting that this app was released two days before the Apple music event where new iPods and a new version of iTunes is anticipated to be launched.
Very interesting....
Reader Comments (12)
Then day pass won't let you use the iPhone app. It's a shame because that's how I intended to use it.
"Apple could kill the Spotify service dead in it’s tracks if it wanted too."
Don't be so sure about that. The Spotify client was also released for the Android platform this night. If Apple releases an iTunes streaming service it will of course have an impact on the number of Spotify users with iPhones, but not everyone is using iPhone/iTunes.
Also, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) have said that "Spotify is so good" and Li Ka-Shing who own quite a piece of Facebook have also invested a large sum in Spotify. This might be something and the future will tell. Anyway, I think it will be interesting.
Hi Don,
Just a quick question on this. If I understand it correctly it is a subscription based service, so if you stop paying are you still able to play the music you 'bought' ?
And if you can Cache the songs on your iPhone why did the playback stop when you had nog more Wifi / Cell Phone coverage ? What's the purpose of Caching it then ?
I'll have to check Spotify myself, I just don't like the idea of not being able to play the music I paid for once I stop paying :-P
Regards,
Stefaan
Hi Stefaan, You're not buying the music, you're subscribing to a service to access the music. Stop paying and access stops. The tracks I was listening to were from the streaming service so dependent on a decent data connection. If you cache the tracks, then they are stored locally and will play without a connection.
@steve
Here in Sweden they will start to sell "gift cards" in kiosks and 7eleven. Maybe that's how they are planning to sell day passes. Also that might be the best way to sell the service to younger people that don't have a credit card. Mom can buy her kids one day/month "gift cards" or so...
I think that's a brilliant idea on how to sell the service.
Don, Thanks for the write up. I haven't gone for the iPhone app, but your review did inspire me to sign up, and even after 10mins of using it, I have to say it is a great service.
Hi don,
Thanks for the clarification. Still not quite fond of paying the subscription for 5 years and then stop paying and have nothing left :-P
Still, it doesn't seem to be available here in Belgium. If prices were descent I might consider it though.
But if I understand it correctly you pay almost 10 pounds + a mobile phone data plan in order to be able to use your music everywhere (well everywhere in the UK). Once you leave the country you're still left without your music ?
I don't mind the subscription model all that much, but if I have to pay 10 pounds a month to access my music, I want to be able to access it anywhere and anytime without additional costs.
Of course if Spotify is available in more countries you would probably be able to access the music in those countries as well.
Still, gonna try it out when it't available out here.
Regards,
Stefaan
Might consider it though.
I won't be signing up to this or to a similar service if Apple decide to start a subscription service. It's another direct debit coming out of my bank account that I don't need. I stoped subscribing to LoveFilm (similar to Netflix to all in the USA) because I found that I just wasn't able to keep up to make it worth the cost, so now I rent from iTunes (on another mater i have a problem with this too, why is there a time period for a movie to be rented, after around 3 months some movies aren't available for rent only purchase!?).
Back to the point, I hate subscriptions especially with music, I want to own my music, but services like Spotify & 7 digital do allow me to listen to albums before I purchase them (with ads in the middle).
The only direct debit I have is with 02 for my iPhone but I would have prefered to have gone with PAYG.
Subscriptions are only worth the money if you trully make a use of the service. I hope you ho to the gym often enough to justify the subscription cost ;-)
I love IPhone Cool
I have been a premium subscriber for about a year, and it´s great to listen to both old and new music.
The service is dependent upon a bloc license. Many musicians have recently revoked their license due to the small fees the service generates. The record company of the Norwegian band The Lionhead Brothers received 2 Euro (or ca 3 USD) when one of their songs was streamed 55 000 times.
wow, I love it
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