Spotify is already enjoying success with its current online music service, which functions like a music collection, allowing users to create playlists from specific albums and tracks. Not content
to stop there, the London-based company is reportedly working on another format, which, like rival music service Pandora, would operate like radio.
“The new service would start by
year-end and be supported by advertising, said the people, who weren’t authorized to talk publicly,” Bloomberg reports. The new, would-be service would already be cheaper to operate
than Spotify’s existing service, because royalty rates are lower and set by Congress, Bloomberg notes. What’s more, “An online radio offering would advance Spotify’s
strategy of attracting users with free, ad-supported services who can be converted later into paying subscribers,” it suggests.
According to Bloomberg, about a third of Spotify users
have signed up for paid plans offering unlimited, commercial-free music on computers and mobile devices. According to sources, Spotify has already started notifying some content partners of its
impending service.
Read the whole story at Bloomberg »