Spotify May Open Up To Third-Party Developers And Become Authentication Service
When it comes to the world's single biggest music subscription service Spotify, changes such as opening up to the USA after 2 years of preparation don't come easy – but what they'll reveal this Wednesday may well change their whole outlook by opening up to 3rd party developers. Spotify recently sent out a message that they'd be having a press conference this week, and as All Things D's Peter Kafka notes, the change they'll be revealing more than likely has more to do with how their music is delivered to you, the consumer, than it does with what music and services they'll be providing. It does make sense that they'd be connecting with more services, as their recent deal with Facebook has proven to be more than lucrative for them already. What does this mean for you, the Spotify free service user? Not a whole lot. How about you the Spotify Premium user? Perhaps a new collection of options for places of access!
The team at Spotify seems to be excited about the prospect of becoming a middle-man for music if what Kafka's source says is true. As Kafka notes, an industry executive he spoke with says that some of the big music labels working with Spotify are "philosophically aligned with the idea of using Spotify as an 'authentication layer,'" and that they "see this as a value-add and they're not worried about cannibalization." If you're thinking about how many layers the music really truly needs to go through to get from the musician to the ear of the listener, this would be two to three rather than just the none in downloading straight from the musician.
And what with Google Music now set up to essentially be that zero with their newfound ability to allow musicians sign themselves up to the Google Music market, what does Spotify hope to do here by widening their stance? We shall see on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll also see a new set of labels signing up for the team too, I'm really crossing my fingers for a few more rarities. Hang around SlashGear for the full scoop.
[via All Things D]