"We think this is a perfect spot for spotify."At spotify you can choose from a selection of over 16 million tracks. The music is then transferred directly on the internet without the data being stored as in the case of downloading. The technical term for this is streaming. Spotify says it has more than ten million active users, including three million with a paid subscription.
The swedes are already active in twelve other countries. Unresolved licensing issues have delayed the launch of spotify in germany so far. "There were significant hurdles to entering the german market," said ek. "But now we are in a good position."Spotify is already the second-largest source of revenue for record companies in the digital music business in europe. Since its launch in october 2008, spotify has paid around 200 million euros in royalties to the music industry. This benefits record companies as well as composers and artists.
However, the collecting society gema said on monday that there was no contract with spotify at the moment. "We are in the midst of intensive talks, but they have not yet been concluded," a spokesperson.
For the federal association of the music industry in berlin, managing director florian drucke told the news agency dpa: "spotify has permanently changed the music landscape in countries like sweden and written a piece of music history in a very short time." Prints buried that the service is now also available in germany. He is "convinced that spotify will also set strong impulses in this country". However, the providers of digital music services on the internet are still "operating in a stable market" that will remain fragile "until the legal framework is created that enables the sustainable containment of copyright infringements on the internet.
Spotify users can freely choose what music they want to listen to. The data is transferred over the internet without any storage as in the case of download services. This is known as "streaming," a form of music listening that is becoming increasingly popular. Last december, the collecting society gema and the IT trade association bitkom created a uniform licensing basis for streaming services in germany by issuing a fee schedule. These include services such as napster, simfy, rdio and aupeo, among others.
Spotify competitor simfy announced on monday that the company had received 30 million euros in a further financing round from several investors. This year, a turnover in the double-digit millions is being targeted. In the second quarter simfy is expected to break even with more than two million users.
Spotify offers three usage models in germany. Music listening on stationary computers with advertising is free of charge. For 4.99 euros a month, you can hide the advertising. Full use with mobile devices such as smartphones and higher transmission quality (320 kilobits per second instead of 160) costs 9.99 euros per month.