Music Subscription Service Spotify Submits iPhone Application to Apple

BBC News reports that Swedish music subscription service Spotify has submitted its iPhone application to Apple for App Store approval. The free application would allow users of Spotify's premium service, which currently costs 9.99 per month in the UK, to stream millions of tracks to their iPhones and even allow users to cache streams for offline listening.

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.

Spotify has also posted a video preview of its new iPhone application.


TechCrunch addresses the issue of whether Apple is likely to approve Spotify's iPhone application, given its apparent direct competition with Apple's iTunes Store music offerings. The report notes that the iTunes Store is not designed to be a significant money-making enterprise on its own, and the paid nature of Spotify's service offers some limits to the degree of competition.

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.