Catablog e.V@ngelist

02Dec08

Here is a gem for the webcentric, musicgeeks & fashionfreaks brought to you from this weeks catablog evangelist.

Webcentric-Musicgeekery

Spotify - I’ve been long waiting for web music service that offers a bredth and depth of catalogue, discoverability, ease of use and immediacy. I am tempted to say that the wait may almost be over, Musac start up Spotify demonstrates many of these characteristics and suggests that we may be closer to a sustainable internet music service that satisfies both the hawkish RIAA and the free’a'holic music fan.

The beauty is in its simplicity, although it uses client side software; so like  itunes you have to download and install the software, it seems to have seamless web integration. All you need do is download, install, search and normally instantly find a song your listening to.  Spotify also has a discoverability feature, akin to Pandora, Lastfm and others.

What I like about this service is that its proprietors do not pretend that they can give away everything away for free, subsquently adopting a freemium style business model, supported by display and radio style i-dent advertising between songs.  It is a non-disruptive, simple user expereince that delivers pretty much what you need when you want it….if you are connected to the internet of course. Naturally, Spotify will have to deal with all the classic music start up issues of scaling, user adoption and legality. In my view the more interesting challenge will be that of cracking “mobile”. In a world where music consumption is typified by the ubiqutous ipod, mobility is a key factor in the longterm viability of any music service that is targeting a mainstream audience and possible digital music access domination!

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