Spotify Connect

I would vote for Spotify ahead of Airplay also

Here is the story for those who have not seen it

http://www.theguardian.com/tec...rivals-apple-airplay

Interesting article, many thanks for sharing. Classic arrogance from Spotify. For a partnership manager, this guy sure knows how to piss on his partners.

Sadly so typical of the Internet business.  With this attitude, maybe Naim's right not to work with them.

"What I see in general with the iPod and iTunes and those kinds of developments is that the audio [hardware] world has basically lost its role in the innovation curve, and they've started to become followers," he said"

"Partners are great at building devices that make great sound quality and great design, but they struggle a little bit with following the speed of innovation that happens on the internet. They're screwing things together, and you can't do that as quickly as screwing software together. But by doing this, we bring them back in front." (Spotify's global head of hardware partnerships, Pascal de Mul.)

"We want to make sure people understand that it's not just about the £500-and-up devices."

For £500 at Naim I can buy . . . . a cable ;-)  We are, indeed, living in rarefied air here.

It is interesting and with no real indication of the Price, we should remember that Naim has paid apple for the digital transfer of music from Apple devices. As I understand something that would have been possible without paying Apple Money if it had been implemented after the switch to thunderbold.

I Wonder iwere the sales man is from. This quote about screwing Things together used to be one of the top Things not to say when Danish businessmen with limitted knowledge of English tried communicating with the natives.

"Partners are great at building devices that make great sound quality and great design, but they struggle a little bit with following the speed of innovation
that happens on the internet. They're screwing things together, and you can't do that as quickly as screwing software together. But by doing this, we bring...

Claus

I use Spotify on a regular bases to identify music I might then go on to purchase, download it to my iphone or imac and play it through the ndac. Considering how inconvenient this would have been two or three years ago I'm happy with the overall process.

I recently read an article about Spotify's finances and the refusal of some recording artist to allow their music to be used on the site due to the pitiful royalty payments, which makes me question it's future viablity. Two or three years from now I can imagine we will still be using Airplay but what about the likes of Spotify, will it be regarded as an unsustainable good idea?

Spotify is only sustainable if they can capture enough paying subscribers.  They'll either build that market share or run out of cash.  

Free users are losing them money, if you want to see Spotify around in 2 or 3 years time you should sign up.

Personally, I'd rather pay £9.99 per month to listen to almost anything I want on Spotify, than for a dozen crappy downloads from i-tunes or buying one extra CD a month.

The Spotify model clearly favours artists who can create lasting demand for their music rather than those who flare brightly but fade quickly.  That will be true of any rent vs buy model, it is to consumers financial advantage to rent access to almost everything rather than buy a tiny fraction of the music that interests them and now technology makes it feasible - that is going to permanently reduce some artists income relative to what they would have earned under a sell model, others may earn the same or even more but over a longer time frame.  Some artists are making money (OK only a very small amount) out of me via my Spotify subscription that would otherwise never make a penny out of me because I'd never buy their music.  So Spotify is not all bad news for artists. 

I think the comparison to iTunes and CD sales is false.  I see Spotify as my personal on-demand radio station and the royalties paid to artists (or their representatives) should be compared to those paid for radio airplay.  If they are lower than those paid for radio airplay then I would be concerned whether artists are getting a fair slice of my money.  Unfortunately none of the sources looks at this comparison.  Does anybody know?

I don't taking the bleating of millionaire musicians, who have mostly been happy banking the cheques from their material being regularly repackaged and resold to fans who've already bought it in slightly different guises, too seriously.

Most musicians always have and will continue to struggle to make a decent living.  We shouldn't be at all worried that new business models might make it harder for the lucky minority to get rich.

Olly 

I can't even remember how many CDs I have bought after listening them in Spotify first. Magnificent service and 9.90 € is nothing for an on-demand radio with +3 000 000 songs, easily accessible with a mobile phone. Sound quality is enough for background listening at home and I am quite sure that illegal downloading for testing purposes that many people has been practicing has diminished with the Spotify.

I also think that it is great avenue for new bands to get their music known by the audience. I read a good review from a new band or hear their new single from the radio, what do I do? Go to the Spotify for inspection instead of buying the album blindly and get possibly another beer mat. This service is also handy if I am going to a gig and what to listen to the discography in advance.

The big Question therefore is how long such service will be available for this price and what is the pain limit for the price people are not willing to pay? Spotify in currently unprofitable which means that this "life of Riley" can't go on forever. Now it is cheap because physical formats and downloadable digital ones are still selling to keep the industry happy. But people are slowly migrating toward the cloud services and one day the music industry realizes that the it is a lemon they can squeeze a lot more. Thin about if Spotify would cost 100 € per month. That would still be a fair compensation for the musicians but how many are willing to pay that amount?    

Spotify penetration is probably highest in Sweden. The record companies are happy as they are seeing growth and profits again after many difficult years. In Sweden they receive 75% of their revenues from Spotify, 6% from Itunes and 1% from other similar services. CD and vinyl sales are now a small portion of their business. It is likely that other markets will have a similar development. This also means that meny artists now earn decent sums from Spotify.

Hans

Phage

I think buying CD's based on the use of Spotify and other streaming services is a transitional phase and the demographic of people who do this is much closer to retirement age than school age (no offence intended).

My 19 yo son has taken to Spotify enthusiastically (which I'm pleased about given his previous methods of accessing music) - but I can't believe he'll ever own a CD player.  His college music system is his laptop or phone as controller and a Sonos Play 3.  The only notable quantities of physical media he has are DVD's (although these days purchases have pretty much dried up) and XBox games.

Olly