Spotify, the U.S. bound digital music service, is making what The Financial Times (UK) calls "an ambitious challenge to Apple's iTunes" with an important upgrade to its technology. Since
launching in 2008, Spotify's application has been used by more than 7 million people across Europe to access its online music library. New features will now allow Spotify to "absorb" a user's existing
digital music collection within the same interface, and synchronize it with mobile devices running its app, reports The Times.
The new software will allow Spotify users to dispense
completely with iTunes for the first time. Still, larger and better funded companies (Microsoft, Napster) have failed to challenge iTunes. Meanwhile, plans to launch in the U.S. this year have been
held up, partly because of some music companies' concerns that too few Spotify users were upgrading to its premium service.