Spotify Gets Traction, Mobile a Big Factor?

Spotify, the music streaming service, seems to be getting traction, though it only launched in the U.S. market in July 2011. 


It still trails the computer-based online audiences of other music services like iTunes and Pandora by a sizeable margin. If it is to catch up with these other services, it will likely be due in large part to the company’s social strategy, which leverages Facebook for social music sharing.


There are some indications streaming music services are  getting traction as specifically mobile apps, as well. If Spotify users behave as Pandora users do, they are using the service on their mobile devices.

Spotify Makes a Splash among U.S. Early Adopters

Android Music versus iTunes: Table Stakes

There's lots of activity in the mobile music space at the moment. Spotify is preparing to launch in the United States and Nokia is rolling out multiple new "Comes With Music territories. But Google is lijely the most significant of the new entrants.

Not that music stores per se are that big a deal on the revenue front. Of course the music download store has never been the end game. The margins are so small that the a la carte download store only has any value as a means to an end, a way to add a sticky application and increase device value, for example, as well as to provide an e-commerce platform, to a lesser extent.

Android Music versus iTunes: When Open Isn’t Quite As Open As It Might Appear | Forrester Blogs: