It has been reported that Amazon MP3 may be upgrading their systems, user interface and more in Q1 2011. Currently Amazon accounts for 7.1% of the entire US music market and their download service accounts for 1.3% of the same market. Amazon is looking to turn things around and really compete with iTunes head on.
Amazon is aiming for a major Q1 relaunch of the MP3 Store’s APIs and web services. They’re asking partners that are building out or planning to launch Amazon MP3 integrations to hold off until this new release is baked.
Another piece of evidence: Amazon is actively hiring for the MP3 Store team. The MP3 Store’s Twitter account has just tweeted a page with over a dozen job openings for both business and engineering positions, including spots for a Web Applications Manager, Client Application Developer, and engineers dedicated to mobile apps for both Android and other partners (some of these openings were listed in the last five months, while others are apparently brand new).
Spotifylaunches two new options to use their service: Spotify Unlimited and Spotify Open.
Spotify Unlimited: costs £4.99 a month, and offers unlimited ad-free music – but ONLY on the computer. If users want mobile access, better sound quality, offline access and other premium features, they’ll still have to sign up to the £9.99-a-month Spotify Premium service.
Spotify Open: Spotify Open is a different flavour of the ad-supported free version of Spotify which caps people’s monthly usage. They’ll be able to listen to the service – with ads – for 20 hours a month. People can sign up to Spotify Open without needing an invite. The Spotify Free service isn’t being scrapped – yet – but it will still be invite-only.
“Up until today, new Spotify users have had two options – either subscribe to the full Spotify Premium experience or receive a Spotify Free invite from a friend,” says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. “Following Spotify’s major upgrade, we wanted to give music fans new ways to enjoy the service. Now everyone who wants a great introduction to Spotify without an invite, or who wants to enjoy unlimited, ad-free music just on their computers, can do so.”
Additionally: Spotify has just launched in the Netherlands today, so make sure you head to the site and get in!
They’ve not announced a specific date, but Business Week are carrying this story, in which Senior Vice President Paul Brown claims they’re in talks with various ISP’s, web hosting companies and mobile providers to co-ordinate service provision in the States before the year is out:
“We’re buying server space in random parts of the states and there are licensing discussions too,” Brown said “But they are going fine because we’re in a long-term partnership with the labels and publishers.”
They are also in discussions to port their smartphone app, that’s currently on Android and the iPhone onto the BlackBerry and Palm Inc. smartphones – a small but significant expansion of their customer appeal. Expansion into the USA will see a big jump in Spotify’s user numbers, which will necessitate improvement in their per-user revenue figures unless they are to start losing huge amounts of money. It’s for this reason that they have been restricting signups in Europe, so perhaps there’s a new model or a magic bullet, or perhaps they’re just bullish about the steady increase in their ad revenues being able to fully fund a free user by the time they’re ready to launch in the new territory.
Either way, if you’re an indie musician, sign up with RouteNote and we’ll get your music on Spotify for you ahead of their expansion.
Not to be outdone by streaming competitors Spotify, who are rumoured to have gained a new funding partner (and consultant) in the form of Napster/Facebook founder Sean Parker, MOG have announced second round funding of $10,000,000 dollars, which they plan to use to take the platform into Europe, as well as funding Stateside expansion. As things stand, the two competitors are entrenching in their home territories, but the date of their confrontation on one side of the Atlantic must be drawing closer, even though no dates have been mentioned by either team. MOG’s monthly subscription is less than half the price of Spotify’s, but Spotify has major label backing, plus a vocal and passionate fanbase. Pandora are keeping their heads down, and quietly getting on with dominating the internet-radio and car dashboard scene, but the clash between these two will likely define the major player in on-demand streaming. The future of this type of music consumption is far from gilt-edged, however, as Spotify are still struggling to up their paid (£9.99 a month) subscription rates to supplement their ad-funded service, while MOG are operating at about a 17% conversion rate from their free trial to a $5 a month subscription. Whether either of these approaches will be successful enough to fund them in the long term remains to be seen, but given the high level of uptake, there is certainly a market for on-demand. Who gets to service it is currently being decided.
Luxembourg’s biggest media star, Spotify has admitted a new investor to the fold, at least according to TechCrunch. Sean Parker was one of the founders of both Napster and Facebook, and would be Spotify’s first and only US investor. If the rumour is true, then it would not only help Spotify’s cash situation (always helpful), but also give them the inside track on running a music service in the States, and might give an indication that the launch of Spotify in the US is approaching.
On the Blackberry App World, UK-based 7digital is prepping an over-the-air download store for delivery in September, according to severalreports. First-run countries include the UK, US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, and downloads will be delivered as one-off, a-la-carte songs. Blackberry owner RIM believes that music is a big part of the mobile experience and they really want to be at the forefront.
Additionally, Shazam has sorted out their Blackberry Storm application. The Shazam update applies to the UK and North America, and unlike the iPhone, it includes a tiered pricing model – free for a limited version, $4.99 or 5 pounds for a more comprehensive edition.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr turned up onstage at Microsoft’s E3 press conference last night to plug the upcoming music game The Beatles: Rock Band. The game will include over 45 songs with others also available to download from a dedicated online store.
One – All You Need Is Love – will have all royalties from sales donated to the Doctors Without Borders charity. There’s a trailer too – the first sight of how the game will look. Watch it above and let us know what you think.
You might have noticed RouteNote has now added a new tools section. Artists can see this tools section once they log into their account and the tools tab can be found in the headerbar. The aim of the tools page is to provide RouteNote artists with tools and options that will help them promote and market themselves on the ever growing internet.
The tools page will offer options in the following categories, Offers and Deals, Banners, Self Promotion eBooks, Widgets, Link and Linkmaker, and Online Advertising.
Amazon has just launched their Mp3 Music store in the UK. The store can be found at http://mp3.amazon.co.uk. The simple-to-use digital music store offering over 3 million DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) songs which will work on any MP3 player including the iPod™- with top-selling albums from just £3 and individual songs from 59p.
Amazon Mp3 UK has all four major labels signed up, SonyBMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music – and leading independents such as Cooking Vinyl, Harmonia Mundi, Beggars Banquet, The Orchard, Concord and IODA.
Acclaim has decided that they didnt want to battle Guitar Hero and Rock Band and instead have launched an online music game called Rockfree. Players can battle it out with up to seven other people over the internet, and it”ll feature licensed tracks including Iron Man, Fat Lip, and Woman. A closed beta kicked off this weekend, with a full launch scheduled for the first quarter of next year.
WMG, Sony and EMI are on board for licensing – which indicates that Acclaim is ponying up a decent amount of cash for song rights, since WMG is apparently playing hardball on this score with games publishers right now.
Currently, the game is free to play so it is going to be very interesting to see if Acclaim will make money from advertising, or even push though affiliate sales to iTunes and Amazon. All I know is that this is a very interesting idea and it is good to see that Acclaim is moving away from just being a console publisher and now turning into a real games publisher.
It has been reported that Amazon MP3 may be upgrading their systems, user interface and more in Q1 2011. Currently Amazon accounts for 7.1% of the entire US music market and their download service accounts for 1.3% of the same market. Amazon is looking to turn things around and really compete with iTunes head on.
has just tweeted a page
On the Blackberry App World, UK-based 7digital is prepping an over-the-air download store for delivery in September, according to 