Spotify’s Co-founder, Daniel Ek, recently has admitted, that “Spotify has not made it easy for its users to buy music, that is where we need to improve.”
Their first step to making these improvements comes in the form of easier access to buying certain albums. From today you will be able to click on any song that appears on Spotify that’s also in 7digital catalogue, which should exclusively feature a “BUY NOW” button below the accompanying artwork.
Before you had to click on the track to first right click and check if it was available to buy, then carry on with the dirty gumpf that is your web browser and try to be as patient as possible while you buy it. As well as making it easier to identify the albums that are available to buy, you no longer are sent to an outside website any more, a tidy looking window appears within the app, your shown the quality of the music, (kbps) and then given a gentle prompt into where your details go. Once you’ve clicked the right boxes your music starts downloading.
You can also find everything you have ever bought through the service, which sits in the upper corner next to your Radio/Play Que tabs. From here you can move them around your computer as you wish, they’re MP3′s so you can import them around as you wish, stick em in your iTunes or just put them in another playlist.
Spotify has also just released a video of its new features:
Over at MusicAlly they have pointed out that the new U2 album (No Line On The Horizon) is currently on Amazon’s US Mp3 store for only $3.99. However, because we are based in the UK there is nowhere we can get this album for so cheap, until now. Tesco has taken the step forward and is now selling the new U2 album in a week-long deal for ony £3.97.
This shows that the digital music store price wars are about to heat up! However, you will notice that iTunes never seems to get into these price wars.
7digital (the UK based mp3 store) has started selling music from Universal Music today. This is the first time in Europe the tracks have been offered in 320k mp3′s, and seems to be selling both the new releases and its back catalog.
Hypebot mentions that it is quite strange that there was no formal press release by either party. Here at RouteNote we would be very keen to talk to a representative from 7digital about including our catalog in their system.
Lime Wire LLC (the company) has announced a deal with The Orchard, a large digital distributor for independent artists and small labels. The deal will effectively double the amount of music available in the LimeWire Store to more than 2 million tracks.
The LimeWire Store launched in the spring of 2008 selling 256kbps DRM-free MP3s from Redeye, Nettwerk Music Group, IRIS, RouteNote and others. The store also offers features exclusive releases and targeted marketing opportunities.
Here at RouteNote we haven’t found Limewire to be a successful partner at all and have since stop delivering content. They seem to not even respond to our emails, which is not a good sign.
