Spotify’s US Injection: The All-You-Can Listen Buffet!
There are some big changes about to take place with Spotify coming to the United States. Other music services, such as Pandora may start seeing it’s users get hunger pains. We’re starting to see plenty of choices to choose from now.
“Consumers here have a lot of choice when it comes to scratching that itch to listen to music,” said Larry Marcus, managing director of Walden Venture Capital, who has invested in a number of digital music companies including Pandora Media Inc. “Subscription music services like Spotify are one option, but there are lots of others, many of them free. The landscape has changed.”
What with free Internet radio services such as Pandora; on-demand digital music companies such as Rhapsody, Rdio and MOG; satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc.; and YouTube’s trove of free music videos, Spotify will have no shortage of rivals.
Although the stepped-up competition will make things harder for Spotify, the company is still expected to attract millions of users in the U.S. — largely because it gives new users free, unlimited access to any song from a catalog of about 13 million titles for six months. After that, users are capped at 10 hours of listening a month and a maximum of five plays for any single track. The limits are designed to encourage users to pay a monthly fee for the all-you-can-listen buffet.
One plate is enough for me at a buffet, but what to choose? As mentioned, I use Pandora for the moment. Spotify will need to have some pretty solid icing on the cake to make me switch.
The unpredictability of any type of playlist keeps things interesting. Pandora preserves a radio experience, but adds the power of choice to it’s users. iTunes playlists get stale, and have to put in the time to make them fresh again. Pandora remains consistent with creating stations that mix and match preferences.
With Spotify, I’m hoping to find it as a solution to suit my lifestyle. Keeping things real-time is the best authenticity. Therefore, songs in particular are less likely to become stale.
