Big News: Apple Approves Spotify’s Fantastic Streaming Music App For iPhone: Bye, Bye iTunes?

By Leander Kahney (3:21 pm, Aug 27 2009)

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Spotify’s app for the iPhone has been approved by Apple and should be available to premium customers shortly. But alas, not in the U.S. — at least, not yet.

“The current status as of right now is it’s been approved and we hope to add the app to the more than 65,000 apps on the app store very soon,” an Apple spokesperson told PaidContent. “We’ve been in constant communication working with the developer and have already notified Spotify that the app will be in the app store very soon.”

This is fantastic news for music lovers, and a big surprise from Apple. If there’s a real threat to iTunes, it’s Spotify.

Spotify’s streaming music service has taken the world by storm with a library that rivals iTunes — about 6 million tracks — and an interface to match. It’s dead easy to search, build playlists, and find new artists. It’s basically iTunes in the cloud — but free.

The $20-a-month premium service dispenses with the occasional ads, which aren’t intrusive. A premium account will be required to use the iPhone app.

So magnificent is the service, it already has 2 million subscribers in Europe and is adding 50,000 new users every day. It is set to come to the U.S. some time later this year, or maybe next, pending licensing agreements with the record labels.

The only downside is that it’s tied to the computer. But Spotify’s iPhone app promises to change that. The app can cache full playlists to be played offline — thousand of songs can be stored on the iPhone and played at any time. You can store up to 3,333 songs — that’s 10 days constant listening — and the songs will sync over WiFi, no USB cable needed, according to Wired.com. Bye, bye iTunes. This is the future of music. Why would you buy songs any longer?

There was speculation that the app wouldn’t be approved by Apple because it is such a threat to the iTunes business model. Some feared Apple would argue that the Spotify App replicates core functions of the iPhone: IE. playing music. This was the reasoning Apple used for not approving the Google Voice app, which is still under review because it replicates the iPhone’s telephony functions — or so Apple argued to the FCC.

So big surprise that Apple’s giving the go-ahead. Of course, the app might be crippled in key ways. But perhaps the company is softening its stance in the face of ongoing controversy about the App Store? Or perhaps Apple is afraid it might become the target of an antitrust case, a la Microsoft?

Fingers crossed Spotify comes Stateside sooner than later. Here’s a cool video of the Spotify app in action. Watch the offline song caching feature at about 28 seconds in. .

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15 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, iPhone, iPod Touch, News, Software |

Gazoobee
How is it “free” if it costs 20 bucks a month and also has advertisements?
This won’t take *my* world by storm.
I’ll Pass
“Bye-bye, iTunes”? Please, let’s try to control our Spotify-gasms for a moment.
Also, please look up “free” in your closest dictionary. The definition is NOT “$20 a month.”
http://www.liamdaly.co.uk Liam
Excellent, did hell just freeze over?
Gene
Well, in order to use Spotify for iPhone, you still need… to buy an iPhone.
I’m pretty sure that Apple makes far more money selling iPods and iPhones than selling music in iTunes — isn’t iTunes just a way to sell more hardware? If so, Spotify fits into Apple’s strategy just fine, and bonus: helps deflect monopoly accusations.
Oh, and Apple gets a cut from every sale of the app. :)
KurtO
Yeah, I think Apple always knew that iTunes and the store were just a stop gap in the evolution of how folks consume music, and a means to sell more hardware. While there will always be a market for library purists (see the revived vinyl market) – those who must “own” the music they love – the majority just want to hear the music they like, when, and where they like. The Spotify model seems to deliver that, though the “holdup” with the American release is, I suspect, more than just a holdup. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for its domestic release.
Gazoobee
@ KurtO:
“… the majority just want to hear the music they like, when, and where they like …”
It might sounds nice to say this, but it isn’t factual. The *majority* (by astoundingly huge amounts), still like to buy their music.
Not to say this won’t catch on or isn’t a good thing, but get the facts straight.
Dustin
At $20 a month, or $240 a year, that is more than what I would spend purchasing music in any year, MUCH more. With the small amount of music I purchase, plus the free music I hear through internet radio, pandora, etc, my music needs are more than covered without this service. However, I’m happy that services such as this will be available for folks who have long been wanting a good subscription model.
http://www.mr2.org.nz John Howell
Wow, just when iTunes went DRM free with music, here comes another lock in vendor.
Nice though that the Americans might feel what is is like for a pandora fan like myself, just because I dont live in the USA. I hope Spotify does take off, but Jeesh, $20 a month for streaming radio – plus bandwidth. Thats over NZ$40 for me, a CD only costs $15-$20 and similar for an iTunes album.
The also don’t mention what happens when you get a call – the app probably quits, and how does it darken the screen when in your pocket to save power, because the only way to power off the screen is to suspend the phone, and the ONLY apps that keep running when this happens is phone and iTunes. maybe this is one of the new breed that can run in the background, but I haven’t seen one yet.
Don’t buy DRM encrypted products – you will loose all your access and data when spotify goes away.
imajoebob
Man, how so many people can be so oblivious to the reality of listening to music is beyond me. Hasn’t anyone noticed that this at least the 3rd or 4th “iTunes killer” to come down the pike with monthly subscriptions? They don’t/won’t kill iTunes because most people don’t want to rent music, THEY BUY MUSIC!!!
Music is personal. We connect to people, places, events, and emotions whenever we hear it. We want to be able to listen to it whenever the mood strikes us. We don’t want to be beholden to a subscription fee to bring all those feelings back. Even worse, we don’t want to lose all those tunes we’ve developed if we drop the service – or if they drop us.
You may not be able to buy beer, but you can sure buy music. And we do.
Phil Speck
SpLotify blows. It will do poorly, then fade away quickly.
jim
wtf i dont get why spotify is so popular?
6 million songs is a lot but really i have 40,000 songs and
i cant listen to them all.
the music i like is on pandora,lastfm and sirius.
i see much more value in these as well as being able to pick a certain song or cd from my collection.
i see i tunes as an accessory to my music and rhapsody or spotify are
a waste of money and alot.
i guess we all have different situations in life.
Darren
Some facts my Yankee friends:
Spotify doesn’t have 2 million subscribers. It has 2m users and a small percentage of them pay.
The iPhone app is designed to drive paid for subs.
What makes spotify a challenger to iTunes is this: you can stream music to your phone over wifi and 3g and when you don’t have a connection you can listen to playlists cached for offline listening.
Do you get it now? It’s ‘iTunes’ plus wireless streaming of millions of songs
AKalan
This should force Apple to improve the music playing capabilities of the iPhone/iTouch to be more like Spotify – what if the iPhone can access your iTunes library from anywhere? The songs aren’t in some subscription- or DRM- limited “cloud”, but the exact same library on your Mac.
I think there’s room for two or more music-playing apps on the iPhone.
http://www.zoombits.co.uk/cables/ hdmi
Hey
I agree. I see little chance Apple will approve this. They just removed all Google Voice related applications and denied the new applications from Google, probably because of the threat to AT&Ts income (i.e., free SMS messages and cheap international VOIP calls). Do you really think they will approve an app that might put a dent into music purchases on iTunes?
ant
What is this Spotify. Is it just streaming music, is it DRM music. I never even heard of them. on the other hand, Rhapsody I have heard of and they have and app now. Do you know what is means. This means that their will probably others coming soon. Like Napster, Bearshare, Limewire, who knows. This Spotify crap wont catch on.