We’re live from Spotify’s New York City press conference where CEO and founder Daniel Ek took the stage to announce several new Spotify features, most notably applications. Ek confirmed that Spotify will launch a “truly integrated” application platform inside Spotify that will be “tailored to you and your user tastes.” Third party developers can easily build HTML5 apps using a simple API. The first generation of applications will be featured within the “Spotify platform.” Read on for more.
Examples of the capabilities apps might feature include the ability to automatically find song lyrics from a track that is currently playing, or the ability to find upcoming concert dates and locations without ever leaving Spotify. The company has partnered with Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Billboard and more for additional applications. Rolling Stone, for example, will help users find new music and albums from staff recommendations and even essential daily playlists.
The application platform is just one way Spotify is adding an edge to its software in an effort to compete with services from Apple, Rhapsody, Google and Amazon. Spotify first launched in the United States in June and Ek said his company is adding more than 20,000 new tracks every day. It now has more than 10 million active users, 2.5 million of which are subscribers to its pay-for services. It’s so popular, in fact, that Ek said piracy has decreased by 25% since Spotify launched.
Spotify’s press release follows below.
Spotify: A Perfect Platform for Apps
Spotify, the largest and fastest-growing music service of its kind, today opens up a new world of possibilities with Spotify Platform.
Spotify Platform gives third party developers the opportunity to build innovative, engaging music-based apps. To us, it’s the next big step in musical enjoyment.
These free apps integrate beautifully with Spotify, both visually and functionally, and can be accessed and shared by millions of Spotify users through the new App Finder, launching today as a preview at www.spotify.com/us/download/previews/
The first generation of Spotify Apps features 16 partner apps, with 12 available from launch today. We’ve been lucky to partner with some of the brightest and best brands in the world to create engaging, fun, and social apps.
The 13 global partners launching on the Spotify App Finder include Billboard, Fuse, The Guardian, Last.fm, Moodagent, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Songkick, Soundrop, TuneWiki and We Are Hunted, with Top10 and ShareMyPlaylists apps coming soon. We also have three Nordic partners launching local apps, including Tunigo in Sweden which launches today, Gaffa in Denmark and Dagbladet in Norway, which will be launching local Nordic apps soon.
Our integration with Facebook in September has made more people than ever excited about sharing music again, adding more than 7 million new Spotify users in just over two months. And our users have now created more than 500 million playlists, a number which has doubled since just July.
With Spotify Platform, we want to enable innovation on top of music and add many more layers of music enjoyment. We want DJs to create the best lists, and virtual clubs where people can gather together to hear them, dance, and sing along. We want fans to get closer to their favorite artists, and give great editorial partners and tastemakers a way to recommend music to you.
It’s also what Spotify users have been asking for. Now anyone can enjoy great music reviews, buy tickets for gigs, sing along with the lyrics, all inside Spotify. In addition, you can curate the apps you want and make Spotify yours… and the launch apps are just the beginning.
Music is many things to many people. With Spotify Platform and a whole bunch of clever apps, we hope we can all get more out of music than ever before.
Speaking at the conference, Spotify CEO and Founder Daniel Ek commented:
“Once you take a look, you’ll see why we believe this is truly the beginning of something game-changing for digital music. We think this will lead to integrations that keep Spotify beautiful and simple, but layer in great musical experiences designed to be social and fun. It’s what our users have been asking us for.”
Spotify Platform beta goes live later today as a preview, at: www.spotify.com/us/download/previews/. For more information about the apps please visit www.spotify.com/apps. The full consumer rollout will take place later in December.
