A few months ago, we told you about the best music streaming app out there and all about how you couldn’t have it, provided you live in the US. Swedish company Spotify has continued its growth right in the mean time, and now has taken a huge step forward. Apple has approved the Spotify app for the iPhone. Amazing. We know.
This comes as a surprise to many of us, especially considering that Apple rejected (or is “indefinitely studying””"Google’s voice applications, presumably because they pose a threat to their bottom lines. Despite that Spotify poses an obvious threat to Apple’s music selling dominance in iTunes, they seem to have done the noble thing, and approved Spotify.
Users can now stream entire multi-million song catalogue to their phones over data networks, or sync songs to the iPhone’s hard drive via wi-fi. You read that right: you make a playlist, and the Spotify app will sync those songs to your iPhone so you can listen to them even when you lack an internet connection. While the application is free, it will require its users to have a Premium Spofity account which costs ‚£10 a month. This also entitles the user to ad free listening on the desktop player as well.
Spotify has proven very successful in its European markets. While Spotify is still in talks with US record labels to bring it to the US, this further success could be the final push we need to change the game here. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Looks great. Quick question – does the app run in the background? i.e. can I listen to music via Spotify whilst browsing the web or checking my email?