Music Subscription Service Spotify Submits iPhone Application to Apple

Spotify has been called an "iTunes killer" because of its ease of use and its comprehensive, free library of millions of songs.

It is also looked on as a possible saviour for the music industry, in its bid to offer alternatives to piracy.

The application is designed to search for new music and will allow users to temporarily store playlists to their phone for use when there is no connection.

It will also allow users to stream playlists.

Keen observers will note that since Spotify allows access to millions of music tracks, why would Apple allow this app to go into the store and potentially compete with iTunes? Apple has allowed the Last.FM app into the store but this is more like a radio station - Spotify behaves like a jukebox, bringing up exactly the song and artist you want with one click.

However, it's common tech industry knowledge that Apple makes fairly meagre profits from iTunes, as it's largely a honeypot to get consumers to buy Apple hardware, sales from which form the bulk of their profits. So Spotify would not compete nearly as much as you might think - plus, making it a subscriber-only application on the iPhone further creates a barrier to competition with the iTunes store.