Looking back: Spotify by Ek
According to an article in Wired Mag, JAN 2011, pg. 074-082, “The Celestial Jukebox”, by Neal Pollack which I read a few days ago, Spotify is the best thing since sliced bread (software) that we cannot use. Why? Because we live in the United States. Don’t you just love it when the good ole USA turns out to be not necessarily the best, but definitely the most $? Spotify is a Swedish music software company which actually provides free music to 95% of their customer base. Whereas we in the USA, according to the article, supply free music to approximately 5% of ours. They keep trying to bring into the USA, but the music label companies won’t play ball. They need to maintain their profit margins. We have so many middle men. I was thinking we should just start listening to European music. “The company estimates it has 10 million users in seven countries with more than 500,000 paying subscribers…” Surely I could find some music I like. Besides, I can’t understand most of the lyrics of some songs I listen to now and they are in English! I actually prefer words I cannot understand when I’m working. That way I can listen without losing my focus. Instrumentals, like new age and classical, just get redundant after a while. I love African music and lively operas. It would be a fun adventure. Someone tell Daniel Ek, CEO to bring on the world view to us and when the music artists here recognize they are losing their audience, they’ll force their producers to get with the program. (Update: According to wikipedia, the service launched in the USA in July of 2011. (10/2018)
