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Spotify: The Future of Music?

Author	Andy Vandervell
Published	5th Mar 2009

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After Napster

Ever since Napster came along and introduced people to the idea of sharing music easily and freely, the music industry has been fighting against the tide of technology innovation and rapidly changing attitudes among consumers. Even when it tried to adapt, users reeled against restrictive DRM measures that effectively locked them into specific hardware players and limited their ability to enjoy their music the way they wanted to: freely.

Eventually, belatedly, towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year, it appears as though the music industry is starting to accept the inevitable: that it will have to fundamentally change the way it operates. This was first seen by the first music stores to go fully DRM-free, lead in the UK by 7digital, with the likes of Amazon and Apple's iTunes service following in a similar vain. This was clearly a massive step in the right direction, even if there are still plenty of issues to deal with, such as pricing and flexibility of codecs and bit rates available.

Still, if the music industry has been slow to change the way it sold its music, it has been quite ruthless in the way it has exploited online communities to promote its wares. MySpace and Last.fm are the most obvious examples of this and though they developed their influence largely through the activity of its users, the industry has been quick to exploit this to their own benefit.

So, paradoxically, while the industry has been quick to take advantage of new technology and communities to promote music, it's been slow to deliver that music in a form those communities would like. So slow, in fact, that while it has finally got a grasp on selling its music online and without restriction, something else has come along to change things all over again. That service is Spotify and it could well do now what Napster did almost 10 years ago, but this time it's both free and legal. Fancy that!

Latest 4 of 25 Comments

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alchobot said on 5th March 2009

I think it's fantastic and possibly the future of music, why have the hardware when you can listen to it any time - if you have access to the internet. maybe they could do som... more

Dave e said on 18th March 2009

Great review and a great product - a major step change in music listening
Lots of scope for ideas but one for me is to improve use on multipe PCs - If I log on in work I don... more

Seymour Cat said on 21st April 2009

I love Spotify, but they could do with sorting out gapless playback. Try listening to a DJ mix album and you'll hear what I mean.

Terrry Dutson said on 14th July 2009

Spotify is great, but I wish they would change the screen display - white text on black background is awful. Is there a way I can change this myself?

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